NEW YORK: US stocks closed mixed Wednesday in markets that barely budged a day after a burst of buying on the promising first results of the corporate earnings season.
Glum trading in Europe, still struggling with the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis, kept a cloud over Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 13.02 points (0.10 percent) to close at 12,449.45.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 8.26 points (0.31 percent) to 2,710.76, while the S&P 500, a broader measure of the markets, ended virtually flat, up 0.40 point (0.03 percent) to 1,292.48.
After opening lower, the blue-chip Dow, which had finished Tuesday at its highest peak since July, managed to erase all its losses to finish in positive territory.
Share volume was "paltry," Briefing.com analysts said.
"The lack of participation is a consequence of today's dearth of data and absence of meaningful corporate announcements," they added.
The Federal Reserve published its report on economic conditions, commonly known as the Beige Book.
The report showed growth continued at a "modest to moderate pace," while improvement continued, particularly in a pickup in consumer spending, a main driver of the economy.
Financials continued to shine. On the 30-stock Dow, Bank of America leaped 3.6 percent and JPMorgan Chase added 1.7 percent.
Coca-Cola dropped 1.9 percent after UBS downgraded the soft-drink giant from "buy" to "neutral".
Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters lost 18.6 percent after chief executive Glen Senk resigned, with analysts voicing worries over the company's direction.
Leisure shoemaker Crocs jumped 16.4 percent after predicting that the company's fourth-quarter revenues would come in at the high end of earlier estimates.
Retail conglomerate Supervalu, which owns Albertsons supermarkets and other brands, lost 12.5 percent after reporting a wider fiscal third quarter loss.
Bond prices surged. The yield on the 10-year Treasury tumbled to 1.90 percent from 1.97 percent on Tuesday, while the 30-year yield fell to 2.96 percent from 3.03 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
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