Wall Street fell on Thursday after quarterly results from Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc failed to live up to expectations of some investors a day after major indexes rallied to yearly highs.

Consumer prices rose marginally in September and the number of workers filing new claims for jobless insurance hit a nine-month low last week, more proof the economy was healing after a protracted recession, but not enough to turn stocks.

Although the earnings from Goldman and Citigroup came in better than the analysts' forecasts, their results came a day after much stronger-than-expected numbers from JPMorgan Chase & Co helped drive Dow industrials above 10,000, fanning hopes that other banks would follow suit.

The blowout number that JPMorgan had yesterday ... raised expectations, said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. Goldman produced great numbers but apparently didn't live up to those heightened expectations.

Goldman Sachs fell 1.5 percent, and Citigroup dropped 4 percent, with the KBW Bank index <.BKX> falling 1.30 percent.

Two important early regional gauges of business activity gave a mixed picture of the prospects for an economic recovery. Factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region grew less than expected in October, conflicting with a much more robust reading out of New York state earlier in the day.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 23.88 points, or 0.24 percent, to 9,991.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 3.76 points, or 0.34 percent, to 1,088.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> lost 7.12 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,165.11.

Big technology names are due to report third-quarter earnings after the bell, including International Business Machines Corp and Google Inc. Analysts are looking for a revenue to grow at Google year-over-year.

IBM's shares fell 1.1 percent and Google edged lower by 0.3 percent. The PHLX semiconductor index <.SOXX> fell 1.7 percent.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy)