Oil prices continued rising to weigh down the markets to a moderately lower close with the Dow easing a fraction to 11,842. Nasdaq tumbled 20 points to 2386.

On the upside

Speculation that record oil prices will spark interest in nuclear energy lifted shares of Uranium Resources (Nasdaq: URRE).

Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) will no longer attempt to acquire British oilfield contractor Expro International Group.

On CNBC, Jim Cramer called Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) a favorite stock pick.

On the downside

United Airlines parent UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) announced the elimination of 950 pilots as part of its plan to offset record fuel expenses by reducing domestic capacity.

US Airways Group (NYSE: LCC) entered a code sharing alliance beginning June 25 with Air China.

In an appearance before Congress, Northwest (NYSE: NWA) CEO Doug Steenland testified that more regulation of commodities trading will contain skyrocketing crude oil prices.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 6 points to 720.