NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks ended a month-long rally on a weak note, but still chalked up the best September in 71 years.

Indexes rose sharply at the open yesterday following some better news on the economy, but stumbled at midmorning and stayed lower the rest of the day as traders pulled out profits following a spectacular run for the market in September. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 47 points, having been up as many as 113 earlier in the day.

The Dow gained 7.7 percent in the month, making it the strongest September since 1939, at the dawn of World War II. However that runup followed a dismal August, and the Dow is still only up 3.5 percent for the year and is 3.7 percent below its closing high for 2010 reached on April 26.

Technology shares, which have been among the best performers this month, led yesterday's pull-back. Major technology companies like Apple Inc., Dell Inc. and Google Inc. were all down about one percent.

"You can't underestimate people taking profits," said TC Robillard Jr., a managing director at investment bank Signal Hill. Robillard said that like most reports throughout the month, Thursday's batch of data only confirmed that the economy is growing very slowly.

Major indexes have been surging all month on signs of incremental improvement in the economy, which have allayed worries that the country would fall back into recession.

Traders were initially upbeat yesterday after a reading on regional manufacturing in the Chicago area jumped in September. Economists had expected the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index to fall slightly. That regional manufacturing report bodes well heading into today's monthly report on national manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management.

"The jump in Chicago PMI was nothing short of shocking," said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research at MF Global. "It was complemented by the drop in (unemployment) claims."

The Labour Department said yesterday that first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell more than economists had predicted last week. Applications are still at levels that indicate employers are not necessarily ramping up hiring, but at least the pace of firings seems to be slowing.

The government also slightly raised its estimate on second-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity. The government said GDP grew at a 1.7 percent pace in the second quarter, better than the 1.6 percent pace estimated a month ago.

US economic growth isn't expected to pick up much because consumers have cut back on spending while unemployment remains high.

Businesses have kept activity in check because of uncertainty surrounding potential tax changes and costs associated with recently passed health care and financial regulatory reforms.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 47.23, or 0.4 percent, to 10,788.05.

The Dow had risen 113 in the opening minutes of trading on improved economic news before pulling back.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.53, or 0.3 percent, to 1,141.2, while the Nasdaq composite fell 7.94, or 0.3 percent, to 2,368.62.

Rising stocks narrowly outpaced falling ones on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.3 billion shares.