Stocks Barely Budge on Mixed Outlook for Global Economy

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Major U.S. stock indices were little changed Thursday after a mixed bag of economic reports failed to show the direction of the global economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10 points, or 0.1%, at 13,165.

There was a roughly equal number of decliners and advancers among the Dow's 30 components. American Express(AXP) , Walt Disney(DIS) , United Technologies(UTX) and AT&T(T) were the biggest percentage decliners. Cisco(CSCO) , Caterpillar(CAT) and Alcoa(AA) led the gainers.

The S&P 500 finished up about half a point at 1,403, but still not far off its four-year high of about 1422.

"The market continues to confound all of those that are looking at what appeared to be weak -- and in some cases -- deteriorating economic fundamentals globally," Janet Engels, an analyst at RBC Wealth Management commented.

The Nasdaq climbed 7 points, up 0.25% to 3018.

Basic materials, capital goods, energy and technology led the market gains. The weaker sectors were conglomerates, transportation, health care and consumer staples.

Volume totaled 70.3 million shares on the Big Board and 1.67 billion on the Nasdaq.

Matthew Zeman, a trader at Kingsview Financial, attributed the relatively dull market action to the summer doldrums -- people being on vacation and also waiting to see if there's any Fed action at next month's meeting.

"Given the big bounce we had recently, the fact we didn't sell off yesterday or much today bodes well that the bulls continue to have the momentum," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's. "It's still our view that, overall, the economy will grow more than most think in the second half of this year, with housing being one of the key factors. Better housing data has a much bigger impact on overall consumer confidence than anything the Fed can do."