NEW YORK - Encouraging news about the U.S. economy wasn’t enough to give the stock market its fourth straight day of gains.
Manufacturing grew faster in April than in March as exports picked up and factories accelerated hiring. U.S. shoppers ramped up their spending in March at the fastest pace in 4 ½ years, and construction spending also ticked higher. The reports, coming a day after the Commerce Department said U.S. growth stalled in the January-March quarter, suggest that the economy is gaining momentum after an unusually harsh winter.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.27 point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,883.68.
While the Dow Jones industrial average closed in on another all-time high Wednesday, it fell 21.97 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,558.87. The Nasdaq composite rose 12.90 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,127.45.
“The data was good, but not robust enough to completely eliminate doubts over whether the first quarter was entirely weather-related,” said Anthony Valeri, an investment strategist for LPL Financial.
Investors’ reaction to the economic reports was also likely muted ahead of today’s April jobs report, Valeri said. Economists are predicting U.S. employers added 210,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate dipped to 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent.
On Thursday, stocks moved between small gains and losses for most of the dayas investors also assessed the latest round of company earnings and reports of a potential deal.
Dish Network climbed $3.35, or 5.9 percent, to $60.21 after The Wall Street Journal reported that AT&T had approached the satellite TV provider about a possible acquisition. A deal would likely be worth about $40 billion, the Journal reported.
The report came after news Wednesday that power company Exelon agreed to buy Pepco Holdings for $6.8 billion.
“That corporate balance sheet, which was very conservative for a while, is starting to unlock,” said Jerry Braakman, chief investment officer of First American Trust.
Overall, the trend in U.S. company earnings has been steady, if not spectacular, improvement.
More than 60 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings for the first quarter. Analysts expect earnings for the period to rise by 1.7 percent, compared with growth of almost 8 percent in the fourth quarter and 5.2 percent in the same period a year ago, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.
“There’s a lot of noise around the trend, but the trend is positive … Earnings are coming in OK, and that makes me happy,” said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management. “Investors need to get into this market.”
Treasury prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.61 percent from 2.65 percent and is close to its lowest level of the year.
Business, Pages 32 on 05/02/2014