NEW YORK -- Stocks wobbled Wednesday and finished little changed before the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.
The markets were positive for most of the day, but their gains dissipated in the final minutes of trading. Last week, the markets made their biggest weekly jump of 2015, but the indexes have hardly budged this week.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.20 points to 17,813.39, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.27 point to 2,088.87. The Nasdaq composite index picked up 13.33 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,116.14.
U.S. markets will be closed today for Thanksgiving. They will reopen Friday but will close at noon.
A rebound by drugmakers Pfizer and Allergan boosted the health care sector, while consumer stocks such as e-commerce giant Amazon.com and retailer Home Depot rose in the last trading day before Friday, the unofficial start of Christmas shopping.
Pfizer shares rose 90 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $32.87 and Irish counterpart Allergan added $8.83, or 2.8 percent, to $320.26. On Monday, the two drugmakers said they would combine in a deal valued at about $155 billion. Pfizer shares fell a combined 10 percent Monday and Tuesday, and Allergan shares also slipped after the deal was announced.
Agricultural equipment maker Deere rose after its fiscal fourth-quarter results and projections for the current fiscal year were better than analysts expected. While sales of tractors, bulldozers and other machinery have dropped, Deere has lowered its costs. The stock rose $3.66, or 4.8 percent, to $80.
Hewlett-Packard reported earnings for the final time Tuesday night, weeks after the tech giant formally split into two separate companies. HP, which inherited the parent company's personal computer, printer and commercial software business, sank $2, or 13.7 percent, to $12.64 as its sales weakened. Hewlett Packard Enterprise gained 43 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $14.12. Sales of hardware for data centers, including servers and networking devices, improved.
Energy stocks, which surged Tuesday, gave back some of their gains Wednesday even though the price of oil increased slightly. The U.S. government said crude oil stockpiles rose last week. They are at their highest levels in at least 80 years.
NRG Energy lost 44 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $12.18. ConocoPhillips fell 94 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $54.38.
The price of U.S. crude rose 17 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $43.04 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, picked up 5 cents to $46.17 a barrel in London.
Metals prices slipped after making gains Tuesday. Gold declined $3.80, or 0.4 percent, to $1,070 an ounce. Silver declined a fraction of a cent to $14.158 an ounce. Copper fell 0.9 cent, or 0.4 percent, to $2.046 a pound.
Bond prices ticked higher, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury inched down to 2.23 percent from 2.24 percent. The euro fell to $1.0617 from $1.0655 on Tuesday. The dollar rose to 122.72 yen from 122.44 yen.
Business on 11/26/2015