Stocks finish flat amid mixed data

Wall Street closed essentially flat Thursday after struggling to resume a modest upward trend while investors juggled upbeat economic data, divergent earnings reports and a pullback in Chinese stocks. The Dow Jones industrials edged higher to a record close for the second straight day.

While a mix of profit reports pushed and tugged at stocks Thursday, investors also watched markets abroad, where stocks fell following word that economic growth in China’s first quarter jumped a higher-than-expected 11.1 percent and inflation increased at the fastest pace in more than two years. Chinese officials said they would take steps such as raising interest rates to curb growth.

Wall Street fell at the opening, then began to pare its losses after a research group said its barometer of future economic activity rose slightly in March, signaling modest growth in coming months. The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.1 percent, as expected, to 137.4 in March. following two straight months of declines.

The Dow rose 4.79, or 0.04 percent, to 12,808.63, its sixth straight gain. On Wednesday, the Dow reached fresh trading and closing highs, perhaps signaling a recovery from a late February pullback that was in part triggered by a selloff on the Chinese market. Wednesday’s trading high of 12,838.46 and that session’s close broke records set Feb. 20.

Broader market indicators dipped Thursday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.77, or 0.12 percent, to 1,470.73, a day after the S&P hit a 6 1/2-year high. The Nasdaq composite index slipped for the third straight session, falling 5.15, or 0.21 percent, to 2,505.35.

Bond prices fell after three straight sessions of gains following the release of decent economic data and some robust earnings reports. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.67 percent from 4.66 percent late Wednesday.

China’s sometimes volatile Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 4.5 percent Thursday. However, its decline wasn’t as steep as the nearly 9 percent drop Feb. 27 that touched off the worldwide sell-off and shaved more than 3 percent from the major U.S. indexes that day. Stocks fell in Europe Thursday, though at more modest levels than in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 1.67 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed down 0.14 percent, Germany’s DAX index declined 0.54 percent, and France’s CAC-40 slipped 0.12 percent.

Most major U.S. companies — even those reporting drops in first-quarter profits — have been exceeding the forecasts of analysts, who lowered their expectations after the stock market plunged in late February.

In other economic data Thursday, the Labor Department said weekly applications for unemployment benefits slipped by 4,000 to 339,000 after hitting a two-month high a week earlier. While weekly figures can be volatile, the overall unemployment rate remains low. In March, it fell to 4.4 percent, flat with a five-year low.

Investors appeared unconcerned by a report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve that showed a weaker-than-expected increase in regional manufacturing.

Light, sweet crude settled down $1.30 at $61.83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold prices edged lower, while the dollar slipped against the euro and the British pound. The euro is near an all-time high against the dollar and the British pound is trading at 26-year highs versus the U.S. currency.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.64 billion shares compared with 1.61 billion shares traded Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.06, or 0.61 percent, to 819.32.