Stocks ended flat on Thursday, giving up modest gains late in the session and denying the Dow a chance to inch closer to a record high.
The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index still managed to close out February with a fourth consecutive month of gains. J. C. Penney was the day’s biggest loser, falling 17 percent to $17.57 after reporting a steep drop in sales.
The nation’s economy grew slightly in the fourth quarter, a turnaround from an earlier estimate showing contraction, according to the Commerce Department. A decline in new claims for unemployment benefits last week added to a batch of data suggesting that the economy continued its sluggish improvement.
The Dow was within striking distance of its record high after a gain of more than 7 percent this year. The Dow’s record closing high, set on Oct. 9, 2007, stands at 14,164.53, while the Dow’s intraday record high, set on Oct. 11, 2007, stands at 14,198.10.
The 20-stock Dow Jones Transportation Average, seen as a bet on future growth, is up 12.9 percent this year. It hit a record intraday high on Thursday.
“To push through to new highs, you would have to see consistent positive economic data in the U.S. and have Europe stabilize — those are two pretty big requirements,” said Jeff Morris, head of United States equities at Standard Life Investments in Boston.
“It wouldn’t surprise me to see us bounce around as we have the past couple of weeks,” he added.
After a strong January with gains of more than 5 percent, both the Dow and the S. P. tempered increases in February. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting caused concerns that the central bank would pull back on its stimulus measures sooner than expected, while looming United States budget cuts and turbulent Italian elections tamped investors’ aggressiveness.
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 20.88 points, or 0.15 percent, to 14,054.49 at the close. The S. P. lost 1.31 points, or 0.09 percent, to 1,514.68. The Nasdaq fell 2.07 points, or 0.07 percent, to end at 3,160.19.
For the month, the Dow rose 1.4 percent, the S. P. 500 gained 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 0.6 percent.
Limited Brands and Netflix were among the best-performing consumer stocks. Shares of Limited Brands, the parent of the retailers Victoria’s Secret and Bath Body Works, gained 2.3 percent to $45.52. The stock of the video-streaming service Netflix climbed 2 percent to $188.08.
In contrast, shares of Groupon fell on weak revenue, with the daily deals company tumbling 24.3 percent to $4.53.
Cablevision slumped 9.6 percent to $13.99 after the cable provider reported more than $100 million in costs related to Hurricane Sandy and posted deeper video customer losses than expected.
On a positive note, the generic drugmaker Mylan gained 3.6 percent to $29.61 after it posted a 25 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit and said it would buy a unit of India’s Strides Arcolab for $1.6 billion. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 6/32, to 101 3/32, and its yield fell to 1.88 percent, from 1.90 percent late on Wednesday.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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