Stocks near break-even on Wall Street
11/21/2012NEW YORK — Stocks hovered near break-even today on Wall Street ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down a fraction of a point at 1,387. Bank stocks and utilities fell the most, while industrial companies rose the most, but no category of stock moved more than 0.5 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 25 points to 12,814. Three expensive Dow stocks — IBM, United Technologies, and Boeing — each rose more than 65 cents. High-dollar stocks in the Dow carry more weight.
The Nasdaq composite index was up two points at 2,918.
Deere, the maker of tractors and other farm and construction equipment, was down 4 percent. It reported a quarterly profit of $1.75 per share, missing Wall Street expectations of $1.88.
Chipotle Mexican Group, the restaurant chain, climbed 1.7 percent. It announced late Tuesday that it would buy back an additional $100 million of its own stock. It had announced a $100 million buyback plan Oct. 18.
The quiet open today followed an uneventful finish Tuesday. The Dow dropped as much as 94 points after a warning from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about federal budget talks, then recovered to close down seven points.
The stock market will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and will close early Friday.
In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 0.02 percentage point to 1.69 percent.
European markets were mostly higher. Stocks climbed 0.3 percent in France and 0.1 percent in Germany. Asian markets fared better. The Nikkei index in Japan climbed 0.9 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong 1.4 percent.