Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry are in a statistical dead heat in a nationwide poll taken for Investor's Business Daily.

Kerry has the support of 46 percent of 649 likely voters and Bush is the choice of 45 percent in a poll taken for the newspaper by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence from Sept. 22-27. The results are within the poll's plus or minus 4 percentage point margin of error. A Sept. 14-18 Investor's Business Daily poll showed Bush with a 3 point lead over Kerry.

In a three-way race which includes independent candidate Ralph Nader, Bush and Kerry are tied at 45 percent each among likely voters, with Nader garnering 2 percent. Eight percent of the respondents said they were undecided. Nader has qualified for the ballot in at least 37 states, according to his campaign.

Among 907 registered voters, 44 percent back Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, and 44 percent back Bush in both the two-way and three-way races.

The Investor's Business Daily poll differs from surveys taken by the Washington Post/ABC News and CNN/USA Today/Gallup, which showed Bush, 58, with a lead of at least 6 percentage points over Kerry. Those polls surveyed voters through Sept. 26.

``All the recent polls show a tighter race,'' said Raghavan Mayur, president of Oradell, New Jersey-based TechnoMetrica. ``The beheading of Americans in Iraq and also high oil prices are factors that could be impacting the results.''

Crude oil prices closed at a record today after exceeding $50 a barrel during trading. Last week two American hostages were beheaded in Iraq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Forsythe in Washington mforsythe@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 28, 2004 16:22 EDT