Blue Chips Recover Some; Tech Slips

Updated from 3 p.m. EDT

Blue-chip stocks managed to finish ahead Monday, eking out a marginal recovery following the previous session's giant selloff, but tech shares ended lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up roughly 120 points earlier, took a dip late in the session before closing up 71 points to 12,280. The S&P 500 clawed its way up to a gain of 1 point at 1362.

The Nasdaq Composite, which was weak for virtually the entire session, dropped 15 points to 2459 amid weakness in big tech names Apple (AAPL Quote) -- which unveiled its new 3G-enabled iPhone today -- as well as Cisco (CSCO Quote) and Google (GOOG Quote).

"Considering what happened last week, I have to say that this is a pretty poor bounce-back," said Phillip Roth, chief technical market analyst with Miller Tabak. Referring to a longer-term rebound in equities over the past three months, he added, "The bear market rally looks over."

He believes equities will eventually slide past the lows established in March in the wake of Bear Stearns' near collapse, though he added that stocks "might not crack those lows imminently."

Crude oil, which ramped higher by more than $10 a barrel in the last session and helped yank down the Dow by some 400 points, remained at extraordinarily high levels today. Still, futures saw a bit of profit-taking in the wake of news that Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi has called Friday's massive gains "unjustified," according to the Saudi Press Agency. Futures were off $4.19 to $134.35 a barrel.