A stock rally paused Tuesday after indexes posted big gains to start the year the day before. Many investors are waiting for the Federal Reserve to release the minutes of its last policy meeting later in the day.
The flat market came despite a better than expected report by the Commerce Department that showed factory orders rose 0.7 percent in November. Economists had predicted a slight fall.
Stocks dipped because many investors were taking a break after Monday's jump, said Ryan Detrick, a senior analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
"The bottom line is that we had a big start to the year yesterday and now it looks like a consolidation," he said.
Automakers will report December and year-end sales figures throughout the day. Analysts are forecasting a modest increase that could show that customers bought more vehicles in 2010 than in 2009, when sales plummeted to their lowest levels since 1982.
General Motors Co. said sales of cars and trucks in the U.S. rose 5 percent last year. Its shares rose 0.1 percent to $37.12.
In morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,684. The Standard and Poor's 500-stock index dipped 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,270. The Nasdaq composite fell 1, or 0.1 percent, to 2,690.
Stocks dipped across the market. Technology and telecom companies were the only pair among the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P index to post gains. Grocers Supervalu Inc., Safeway Inc., and Whole Foods Market Inc. each fell more than 3 percent after a round of analyst downgrades.
Alcoa Inc. jumped 3.8 percent to $16.39 to lead the 30 stocks that make up the Dow index. McDonald's Corp. had the largest fall, losing 1.5 percent to $75.17.
The dollar rose 0.2 percent against an index of six heavily traded currencies.
The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its December policy meeting this afternoon. Investors will scour the report for clues of how members of the Fed view its current bond-buying program, a monetary policy known as quantitative easing.
Stocks overseas rose. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei index each rose by 1 percent or more. European shares continued to climb as well. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, which tracks blue chip companies in countries that use the euro, jumped 1.5 percent.
The stock market started 2011 with a jump on Monday. The S&P 500, the index followed by most professional investors, finished 1.1 percent higher after reports showed that manufacturing activity and construction spending rose more than analysts were predicting.
Bond prices were flat. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 3.34 percent.
(Agencies)
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