Markets meander and close mixed
Trader Douglas Glander, center, works Wednesday on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The markets closed mixed as a rally fizzled. (Aug. 8, 2012) Credit: AP
The U.S. stock market has the summer doldrums.
Stocks dawdled between small gains and losses Thursday with investors unable to decide what to focus on: incremental good news about the U.S. economy, or incremental bad news about China and elsewhere.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 10.45 points to close at 13, 165.19. It has barely budged this week, rising Monday through Wednesday but only by small fractions of a percent. The relative quiet is partly due to a lack of major developments in the European debt crisis or decisive news on the U.S. economy. Another reason is simply because traders like to clear out for vacation in August.
"I think there are more active managers in the Hamptons than there are in Manhattan," said Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors in Albany.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was flat, rising 0.04 percent to 1,402.80. The Nasdaq composite index edged up 0.25 percent to 3,018.64.
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