Wall Street Continues to Sputter

U.S. stocks are ending slightly lower, leaving the Standard & Poor's 500 index in the red for September.

It was only the third monthly loss for the benchmark index this year.

After a day of slight ups and downs, the S&P 500 fell five points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 1,972 on Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,042.

The Nasdaq composite fell 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,493.

The S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent in September, but is still up 6.7 percent for the year.

EBay rose 8 percent after the company said it would spin off the mobile payment service PayPal.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.50 percent.