Mixed data keeps Wall Street flat at record levels
By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Tuesday, with major indexes hovering at record levels after a pair of economic datapoints painted a mixed picture of the market fundamentals.
A reading of consumer confidence unexpectedly fell to its weakest level since June, causing investors to take profits after a recent rally, though third-quarter economic growth came in much stronger than expected.
The Commerce Department raised its estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product to a 3.9 percent annual pace from the 3.5 percent rate reported last month. Separately, November consumer confidence fell to 88.7 from October's revised 94.1. Expectations were for a reading of 96.
Markets are coming off a period of long-running strength. The S&P has closed higher in 12 of its last 14 sessions, and is up more than 13 percent from an intraday low in mid-October. Major indexes are coming off five-week streaks of gains.
"Valuations are a bit stretched, but as long as fundamentals continue to move forward investors will find a way to keep moving prices higher," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. "I don't think we'll see anything to disrupt this move."
Market moves may be amplified this week by low volume, which is expected with some market participants out for the Thanksgiving holiday. The U.S. stock market will be closed on Thursday and will close early on Friday.
Energy shares were the weakest performers of the day, down 1.3 percent alongside a 1.4 percent drop in the price of crude oil. The moves came ahead of an OPEC meeting that could cut output. Exxon Mobil Corp fell 1.2 percent to $94.61 while Chevron Corp was off 1.5 percent to $115.87.
Tiffany & Co rose 1.8 percent to $106.95 after same-store sales growth beat expectations. Workday Inc late Monday forecast fiscal 2016 revenue below expectations, sending shares down 6.2 percent to $86.78.
At 12:25 p.m. (1725 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.18 points, or 0.04 percent, to 17,825.08, the S&P 500 lost 1.2 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,068.21 and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.60 points, or 0.05 percent, to 4,757.49.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,507 to 1,426, for a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,401 issues fell and 1,204 advanced for a 1.16-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 was posting 68 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 108 new highs and 35 new lows.
(Editing by Nick Zieminski)
