Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wall Street pauses after rally to five-year high

Stocks drifted in light volume ending little changed, as investors remained cautious after the S&P 500 index briefly hit its highest intraday level since November 2007.

The move extended a recent streak of stocks notching slight daily gains on low volume.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 35.79 points, or 0.26 percent, at 13,982.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 0.90 point, or 0.06 percent, at 1,520.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 10.38 points, or 0.33 percent, to 3,196.88

European shares were flat today, hovering below the top of a six-day trading range, with investors buffeted by a raft of mixed corporate results.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was flat at 1,161.58 points, less than two points below an intraday high of 1,162.77 points hit last week.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei share average lost ground today as the yen jerked higher, triggering profit-taking on exporters, while social gaming company Gree Inc suffered a steep fall after cutting its annual profit forecast.

The Nikkei dropped 1 percent to 11,251.41. The broader Topix dropped 1.2 percent to 966.52 as volume dropped to its lowest in seven days, with 3.81 billion shares changing hands.