Stocks little changed; SP streak intact SP 500’

Stocks little changed; S&P streak intact
S&P 500’s five-session climb longest since March 13
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks ended little changed Thursday, with the S&P 500 clinging to a slight gain to maintain its longest winning run since March, after U.S. data proved better than expected.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-ind...2012-08-09
“Earnings season for the most part is behind us, and like the rest of America, you’ve got Congress on vacation, the European Central Bank on vacation and the Fed doesn’t meet until September,” said Art Hogan, equity strategist at Lazard Capital Markets, of Wall Street’s lack of momentum
“The underlying bid in this market is consensus agreement that we’re going to get more, not less, global monetary stimulus,” Hogan added of equities rise, which has the S&P 500 Index in position to extend its rise into a fifth session.
“The markets are looking for some kind of quantitative easing from the central bank in Europe,” echoed Randy Warren, chief investment officer of Warren Financial Service.
After a four-day climb, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI JIA) fell 10.45 points, or less than 0.1%, to 13,165.19.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) paced blue-chip gains, up 3.2% after Goldman Sachs added the maker of computer-networking equipment to its conviction-buy list.
Rising for a fifth session, the S&P 500 (SNC:SPX) rose 0.58 point to 1,402.80, with natural-resource and energy pacing sector gains and consumer staples and consumer discretionary the laggards.
“We’re in a tug of war with technicians; by the time the S&P 500 gets to 1,400, that’s the iron curtain and we can’t break through,” commented Lazard’s Hogan.
E-Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:ETFC) gained after the online brokerage replaced its chief executive, Steven Freiberg, with an interim chief and said it was looking for a replacement.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ:COMP) rose 7.39 points, or 0.3%, at 3,018.64.
Advancers edged just ahead of decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where composite volume neared 3.1 billion. The Nasdaq’s composite volume approached 1.7 billion.