Caution reigns as US stocks close mixed

NEW YORK: US stocks gave up early gains to close little changed Wednesday as caution reigned in the still-jittery markets.

After a solid morning jump, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up just 4.28 points (0.04 percent) at 11,410.21.

The broad-market S&P 500 added 1.12 points (0.09 percent) to 1,193.88, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 11.97 points (0.47 percent) to 2,511.48.

"Selling hasn't come as a result of any real headline or clear catalyst. Instead, the effort has simply been something that gained momentum after early buying interest fizzled out and stocks struggled to extend the advance," said analysts at Briefing.com.

The tech sector was pulled lower by Dell (down 10.1 percent) and Hewlett-Packard (down 3.7 percent) on expectations that markets could be slow in the coming quarters.

Google lost another 1.1 percent, taking its three-day fall to 5.4 percent after it announced it was buying phone maker Motorola Mobility.

On the Dow, Verizon led the gainers with a 2.1 percent rise as it toughened its conditions for striking workers to go back to work.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.17 percent from 2.21 percent late Tuesday, while the 30-year fell to 3.57 percent from 3.65 percent.

Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011