NEW YORK (AFP) - Another drop in Apple shares left the Nasdaq in the red on Thursday, but higher oil prices helped keep the Dow in positive territory.

Apple briefly ceded its crown as the world's biggest publicly traded company to Google parent Alphabet during the session, but managed to edge out Alphabet at the end of trade.

But Apple still finished down 2.4 per cent on worries about declining iPhone sales and the lack of a winning new gadget to ignite further growth.

Two of the strongest stocks in the Dow were ExxonMobil and Chevron, which both gained 1 per cent as US oil prices rose to a new peak for 2016.

Near the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,723.72, up 0.1 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 was essentially flat at 2,064.42, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.5 per cent to 4,737.33.