Stocks on Wall Street rallied for the fifth day, though the broader indexes finished in the red.

After a choppy session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 20.03 points, or 0.2%, higher at 10,246.97, building on Monday's 13-month high.

However, the broader S&P 500 spent most of the day in negative territory before closing virtually unchanged at 1093.01.

Materials shares initially fell as metals prices declined, thougt gold rallied late in the day to reach another record high.

Among the blue chips, DuPont tumbled 1.8%, while Boeing fell 2.1%. Offsetting the decline, Kraft Foods climbed 1.3% after the food giant said it would ask shareholders to approve the issuance of new stock for its Cadbury takeover bid.

Bank of America gained 1% after chief executive Ken Lewis said the integration with Merrill Lynch is ahead of schedule and will generate more expense savings in 2009 than originally forecast.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1% at 2151.08.

Canadian stocks fell for the first time in six days, led by energy producers, as natural gas slid to the lowest level in almost two weeks.

Canadian Natural Resources and EnCana, the country’s two biggest natural gas producers, fell more than 1.8%.

Thomson Reuters declined after European regulators announced an antitrust probe. Research In Motion rose after an analyst estimated rival Motorola sold half the Droid phones on hand for the product’s first weekend.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index was 60.14 points, or 0.5%, tlower at 11,426.74. It closed on Monday less than 1% below its September 22 high for the year.

A weak performance by the auto sector offset gains for banking giant HSBC Holdings in Europe, as the broader market failed to extend sharp gains from the previous session.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 0.2% to close at 245.31.

Volkswagen preferred shares fell 15.8% after Qatar Holding sold 25 million preferred shares. Porsche lost 3.7% in Frankfurt and Renault lost 3% in Paris. Peugeot slipped 1.3%.

HSBC gained 4% in London after it said that its underlying pretax profit in the third quarter was significantly ahead of a year earlier and that loan-impairment charges were lower than expected in the US.

The UK FTSE 100 index slipped 0.1% to 5230.55, the German DAX declined 0.1% to 5613.20 and the French CAC-40 index was unchanged 3785.59.

Commodities: Oil down, gold up

Crude oil fell more than $US1 a barrel as Tropical Depression Ida weakened and the US dollar climbed.

Gulf of Mexico producers are preparing to resume operations as the storm winds fade.

Crude oil for December delivery fell $US1.34, or 1.7%, to $US78.30 a barrel in New York.

Gold initially fell as the dollar strengthened and investors sold to lock in profits from record prices.

December gold futures lost as much as $US4.20, or 0.4%, to $US1097.20 an ounce in New York, but then rallied to hit another record high of $US1102.50.

Currencies: Dollar up, sterling down

The dollar rose from almost a 15-month low against the currencies of major US trading partners.

Sterling slid against the dollar as Fitch Ratings said the UK’s credit rating is the most at risk among top-rated nations. It fell 0.4 percent to $US1.6695 after reaching $US1.6843 on Monday, the highest level since August 6.

The dollar gained 0.3 percent to $US1.4951 per euro, from $US1.4999. It touched $US1.4626 on November 3, the strongest level in almost a month.

The euro decreased 0.4 percent to ¥134.38, from ¥134.91. The dollar traded at ¥89.87, compared with ¥89.93.

Canada’s dollar traded near the strongest level in more than two weeks as crude oil and global stocks fluctuated.

It strengthened 0.3% to $C1.0519 per US dollar, from $C1.0553. It touched $C1.0498, the strongest level since October 23, after earlier depreciating as much as 0.5%. One Canadian dollar buys 95.07USc.