July 12, 2013- Stocks Close Flat After Recent Gains

With traders tacking a break following the recent strength on Wall Street, stocks are turning in a lackluster performance during trading on Friday. Most traders have moved to the sidelines amid uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets. Currently, the major averages continue to linger near the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq is up 0.56 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 3,578.86, the Dow is down 6.88 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 15,454.04 and the S&P 500 is down 2.06 points or 0.1 percent at 1,672.96. The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders seem reluctant to continue buying stocks after the recent strength lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record closing highs on Thursday. Traders are also digesting the release of a report from the Labor Department showing a bigger than expected increase in producer prices in the month of June. The Labor Department said its producer price index rose by 0.8 percent in June following a 0.5 percent increase in May. Economists had been expecting the price growth to match the increase seen in the previous month.