NEW YORK — Stocks wobbled Wednesday and finished little changed before the Thanksgiving holiday.
The market was positive for most of the day, but its gains dissipated in the final minutes of trading. Last week the markets made their biggest weekly jump of 2015, but the indexes have hardly budged this week.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.20 points to 17,813.39, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 0.27 points to 2,088.87. The Nasdaq composite index picked up 13.33 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,116.14.
U.S. markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. They reopen Friday but will close at 11 a.m. MST.
A rebound by drugmakers Pfizer and Allergan boosted the health care sector, while consumer stocks such as e-commerce giant and home retailer Home Depot rose in the last trading day before Black Friday unofficially kicks off the holiday shopping period.
Pfizer rose 90 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $32.87 and Irish counterpart Allergan added $8.83, or 2.8 percent, to $320.26. Monday, the two drugmakers said they would combine in a deal valued at about $155 billion.
Agricultural equipment maker Deere rose after its fiscal fourth-quarter results and projections for the current fiscal year were better than analysts expected. While sales of tractors and bulldozers and other machinery have dropped, Deere has slashed its costs. The stock rose $3.66, or 4.8 percent, to $80.
Energy stocks, which surged Tuesday, gave back some of their gains even though the price of oil increased slightly. The U.S. government said crude oil stockpiles rose last week. They are at their highest levels in at least 80 years.
NRG Energy lost 44 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $12.18. ConocoPhillips fell 94 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $54.38.
The price of U.S. crude rose 17 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $43.04 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, picked up five cents to $46.17 a barrel in London.
Wholesale gasoline rose 0.6 cents to $1.396 a gallon. Heating oil inched up 0.3 cents to $1.403 a gallon. Natural gas rose 0.6 cents to $2.206 per 1,000 cubic feet.
