S&P 500 ekes out record high after listless day of trading

A day of listless trading on Wall Street ended Thursday with another record high for the S&P 500.

The benchmark index notched its third consecutive gain after spending most of the day wavering between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite also budged little.

The market’s lethargic turn came on a day with little market-moving news.

Published reports have suggested this week that negotiations between the world’s two largest economies have hit some snags. Beijing is pressing Washington to roll back tariffs as part of a potential deal that the nations are trying to hammer out.

“We've had headlines like this before and the market is doing a little bit better job of looking through them,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Until something is announced, yay or nay, it probably doesn't make much sense to trade on it." 

The S&P 500 rose 2.59 points, or 0.1%, to 3,096.63. The Dow slipped 1.63 points, or less than 0.1%, to 27,781.96. The index had briefly been down around 100 points.

The Nasdaq fell 3.08 points, or less than 0.1%, to 8,479.02. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks dropped 0.39 points, or less than 0.1%, to 1,588.79.