World Markets: New York

WITH MOST traders on holiday, and no figures to keep the eight- day rally running, Wall Street stocks traded down slightly during the day, with telecoms shares the biggest losers.

In early afternoon trading, the benchmark Dow Jones index had fallen 0.4 per cent to 9,284, while the Nasdaq index was down 0.7 per cent to 2,166.

"Stocks have moved up so dramatically that investors are beginning to realise that some large stocks have been overvalued," said one analyst.