The Dow Jones fell for the second consecutive day as the recent rebound stalled amid a lack of major news to lift the market.

The index finished 20.08 points lower at 8432.21.

The Nasdaq closed up 31.11 points at 1724.97.

A trading glitch on the New York Stock Exchange did little to keep early upward momentum intact.

Trading was suspended at 1316 local time (1816 GMT) for 59 minutes because of computer network hardware problem.

Dealings had been relatively light before the interruption.

It was the first technology-related halt since 1995.

"Today's trading was listless and directionless, and the paucity of economic news and not very much in the way of earnings news gave everybody a break," said Charlie Crane, chief market strategist at Key Asset Management.

"With the Dow up 1,000 points since October 8, the fact it's having trouble making much ground beyond 8,500 is not too surprising," he said.