NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after a surprising contraction in an index of Midwest business activity, but buying of technology bellwethers like Cisco Systems Inc at the end of a strong quarter limited losses.
* The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 29.92 points, or 0.31 percent, to end unofficially at 9,712.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 3.53 points, or 0.33 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,057.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.62 points, or 0.08 percent, to close unofficially at 2,122.42.
* For the third quarter, the Dow rose 15 percent, the S&P 500 gained 15 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 15.7 percent. The Dow's performance marked its biggest quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 1998.
* For the month of September, the Dow rose 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 gained 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 5.6 percent. These gains ran counter to historic trends showing that September often is a miserable month for stocks. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)