Stocks cap day of listless trading with modest gains

Wall Street capped another day of listless trading Wednesday with a slight gain, extending the market’s winning streak to a third day.

Financial, materials and industrial companies accounted for much of the gain, outweighing losses in health care and real estate stocks as investors reviewed the latest batch of company earnings reports.

Garmin, maker of fitness trackers and navigation technology, rose after reporting better sales. CVS Health slumped after the pharmacy operator gave a 2019 outlook that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

Stock indexes spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses as traders waited for signs of progress in the latest round of trade talks between the U.S. and China.

“Investors are a bit concerned that we might indeed be slipping into an earnings recession,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “They’re really sitting on pins and needles as it relates to the trade talks.”

The benchmark S&P 500 index, which has risen for the past three weeks, gained 4.94 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,784.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 63.12 points, or 0.2 percent, to 25,954.44.

The Nasdaq composite rose 2.30 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,489.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 7.19 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,581.66.

Major European indexes finished higher.

Roughly 84 percent of S&P 500 companies have reported results for the last three months of 2018, delivering earnings growth of about 13 percent versus a year earlier, according to FactSet. Firstquarter snapshots are expected to result in a 2.7 percent decline in earnings, however.

Despite the solid profit growth in the last quarter, investors are cautious about business condi-

tions going forward as signs of weakness in the global economy emerge. Europe and China have both reported slower growth.

Uncertainty over the costly trade dispute between the world’s largest economies has clouded the outlook for company profits this year.

“The earnings (outlook) reductions have been the result of the trade disagreement between China

and the U.S.,” Stovall said. “Should that get resolved, we could see a reversal of that trajectory.”

The Trump administration was set Thursday to resume high-level talks with Chinese officials after two days of preliminary talks by lower-level officials.

The two sides, aiming to ease a trade standoff that’s unnerved global investors and clouded the outlook for the world economy, held talks in Beijing last week. U.S. officials said those talks made some progress on difficult issues such as China’s blueprint for making its industries

world leaders in advanced technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

The Trump administration has raised tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods and the U.S. is due to increase them on March 2, following a 90day

truce to allow time for the negotiations now underway. President Donald Trump has indicated the deadline might be extended if progress is being made.

Investors continued to assess corporate report cards Wednesday.