Stocks Finish Lackluster Session Modestly Higher - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After seeing strength early in the session, stocks gave back some ground but managed to end the session modestly higher. The gains on the day came on the heels of the pullback that was seen in the previous session.

The major averages ended the session just above the unchanged line. The Dow inched up by 3.76 points or less than 0.1 percent to 18,533.05, the Nasdaq rose 12.34 points or 0.2 percent to 5,225.48 and the S&P 500 crept up by 0.85 points or less than 0.1 percent to 2,181.74.

Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.

The choppy trading on the day also came as traders looked ahead to the release of reports on retail sale and producer prices on Friday.

Traders may also have been more focused on the Olympic Games in Brazil amid another relatively quiet day on Wall Street.

The markets largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing an unexpected drop in labor productivity in the second quarter.

The report showed that productivity fell by 0.5 percent in the second quarter after sliding by 0.6 percent in the first quarter. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected productivity to climb by 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said unit labor costs surged up by 2.0 percent in the second quarter after edging down by a revised 0.2 percent in the first quarter.

Economists had expected labor costs to climb by 1.8 percent compared to the 4.5 percent jump that had been reported for the previous quarter.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed an unexpected increase in wholesale inventories in the month of June.

The report said wholesale inventories rose by 0.3 percent in June following an upwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in May.

Economists had expected inventories to come in unchanged compared to the 0.1 percent uptick that had been reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said wholesale sales shot up by 1.9 percent in June following a 0.7 percent increase in May.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced by 0.7 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index shot up by 2.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index climbed by 0.6 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved higher after ending the previous session nearly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 3.8 basis points to 1.545 percent.

Amid a quiet day on the U.S. economic front, trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to earnings news from Disney (DIS), which is releasing its quarterly results after the close of today's trading.