NEW YORK — The stock market is running out of reasons to go higher.
After rocking between gains and losses Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrials managed to rise for a seventh straight day, marking another high for the year.
But there was hardly any excitement. The Dow rose 4 points, while other major indexes gained less than 1 point despite positive reports on home sales and factory orders.
An increasingly cautious mood has gripped the market in recent days, following a period of fervid buying in the spring and summer that sent stocks up more than 45 percent since early March. While economic data are showing modest improvement, investors are worried that stocks may have overshot the economy’s recovery.
“The market jumps, and then it sort of fades again,” said Keith Walter, portfolio manager at Artio Global Equity Fund. “There’s not a lot of commitment here.”
With trading volume and news flow tapering down amid Wall Street’s annual summer slowdown, analysts say there are few near-term catalysts that could get the market’s rally going again.
Stocks seesawed without a clear direction despite a Commerce Department report that said new-home sales rose 9.6 percent in July for the fourth straight monthly increase. Sales rose to 433,000, the strongest pace since last September and well above the 390,000 figure economists expected.
The latest sign of improvement in housing didn’t do much to impress investors, though, who have already factored in a recovery in the long- suffering home industry.
The Dow rose 4.23, or 0.04 percent, to 9,543.52. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.12, or 0.01 percent, to 1,028.12, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.20, or 0.01 percent, to 2,024.43.
