India, Feb. 12 -- Stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged before eventually closing narrowly mixed.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 had been poised to set new record closing highs but pulled back into negative territory in afternoon trading.
While the Nasdaq fell 48.12 points or 0.3 percent to 15,942.55 and the S&P 500 edged down 4.77 points or 0.1 percent to 5,021.84, the Dow rose 125.69 points or 0.3 percent to a record closing high of 38,797.38.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders took a breather following recent strength, which has lifted the S&P 500 above 5,000 for the first time ever.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has also shown...