NEW YORK — The stock market showed little life Wednesday as it closed yet another trading day barely changed from the day before.
Major indexes flitted between tiny gains and losses in the morning, rallied a bit after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its last meeting, then petered out toward the close.
“There’s no real reason to rally and no real reason to decline,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of money manager Tuttle Tactical Management. “It’s been really boring.”
The S&P 500 closed down 1.98 points, to 2,125.85. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 26.99 points, or 0.15 percent, to 18,285.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.71 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 5,071.74.
Stocks fell from the opening of trading as investors weighed the latest batch of earnings reports for the first quarter. Etsy plunged 18 percent after its first earnings report as a publicly traded company showed a hefty quarterly loss. Stock in the e-commerce retailer of crafts dropped $3.80, to $17.20.
Wednesday’s tiny move down broke a bit of a streak for the Dow index: four straight gains through Tuesday’s close.
The price of oil rose for the first time in a week after the Energy Department reported a large drop in supplies of both crude oil and fuels. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 99 cents to close at $58.98 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil used by many U.S. refineries, rose $1.01 to close at $65.03 in London.
