Wall Street slips after 5-day rally as oil weighs

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, July 24, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged down on Friday after five straight days of gains as the rally started to show signs of fatigue along with a drop in crude oil prices.

A modest pullback was expected despite strong data on consumer spending and a rosy outlook from shipping company FedEx (FDX.N) earlier in the day as the market has been saturated with good news, analysts said.

October crude oil futures slipped more than $3.00 to $68.83 as of 1:58 p.m. due to a rise in refined fuel inventory.

"Both equities and oil are exhausted. Money has been coming out of dollar into equities and holding up energy all this week," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

But he added that as long as the U.S. dollar remains weak, stocks will not see a hefty correction as cash continues to move out of the dollar and into risk-associated assets. The U.S. dollar fell to a one-year low against major currencies on Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 39.45 points, or 0.41 percent, at 9,588.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX shed 3.17 points, or 0.30 percent, at 1,040.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 7.91 points, or 0.38 percent, at 2,076.11.

After the longest string of consecutive daily gains since November, the broader S&P 500 index is now up 54 percent from its closing low on March.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) fell 1.2 percent to $70.58 and was the top drag on the Dow. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) also shed 1.2 percent to $69.83.

Among the gainers, FedEx rose 5.3 percent to $76.49 after raising its first-quarter profit view.

The outlook also lifted rival UPS (UPS.N) 3.6 percent higher to $58.33.

Another piece of optimistic news came from the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, which showed that consumer sentiment rose more than expected in early September, moving to its strongest level in three months.

But market reaction was muted.

Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS.N) rose 1.7 percent to $29.13 after Citigroup raised its price target on the stock, and a day after it said its chief executive would be stepping down.

Medtronic Inc (MDT.N) fell 2.1 percent to $38.21 after it said it was warning doctors about problems with 6,300 implantable heart devices because the batteries in the devices drain sooner than normal.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)