US stocks start flat after poor industrial data

In the first five minutes of trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5.38 points (0.04 percent) to 12,976.13.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.48 (0.04 percent) to 1,368.07, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.65 points (0.09 percent) to 2,968.81.

Karee Venema of Schaeffer's Investment Research said the Dow was still "on pace to tackle the 13,000 mark in today's session, after pulling back from the psychologically significant level in the final hour of Monday's trading.

But sentiment was dampened by the Commerce Department's report that new orders for US durable goods made a broad-based 4.0 percent dive in January after three straight months of gains.

But analysts blamed the fall on the expiration at the end of December of a special capital investment tax break rather than a slowdown in the economy.

"Unquestionably, it looks bad, but the context is important; we see no evidence of underlying slowing in the industrial economy so we look for a rebound in February and the re-emergence of the upward trend over the next couple of months," said Ian Shepherdson at High Frequency Economics.