NEW YORK - The earnings-driven rally of the past few weeks appears to have run out of steam on Wall Street, leaving the market in search of a new catalyst heading into the final stretch of the year.

The main stock indexes remain near 12-month highs, but gains have been harder to achieve following the sizzling rise since March of some 60 per cent for the broad market.

Wall Street has been pleasantly surprised by the strength of third-quarter corporate earnings. Analysts, though, say their ability to spark fresh gains appears to be diminished.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.24 per cent for the week to end at 9,972.18, as it hovered around the 10,000 level topped a week earlier.

The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index shed 0.74 per cent to 1,079.60.

Over the past week, the market warmed to earnings from Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo in the tech sector, as well as Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo in banking, but they gave only a temporary boost to stocks.

'The earnings have been tremendous, not just beating estimates but blowing away estimates. That's been the catalyst for holding the market together,' said Mr Marc Pado at Cantor Fitzgerald.

But he said that because many had already anticipated a strong season, 'we see selling on the news'.

This week, investors will see more quarterly results, including those of oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, as well as economic data including Thursday's report on US gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter. The GDP data are expected to show the economy expanded after four consecutive declines.

Mr Douglas McIntyre at 24/7 Wall Street said he believes the rally has strong momentum and can carry on further despite some scepticism. 'Each week, most market experts say that the Dow cannot go any higher.

'Earnings are not good enough. The economy is not strong enough. Unemployment is too high and so is the federal deficit. None of that has kept the market from its persistent climb,' he said.

He added that there is room to rise further in view of the fact that the Dow index is still well below its all-time high of over 14,000 in October 2007.

'The Dow is not going back to 14,000 next year, but there are several arguments that it could rise much more between now and the middle of 2010,' he said.

Even if some earnings disappoint, Mr McIntyre said, 'they are not going to be shocking enough to knock the market off its present course'.