US Stock Indexes Eke Out Gains in Quiet Day on Wall Street<br />Bond yields fell following a report showing U. S. consumer confidence dipped this month.<br />A report showing that pending U. S. home sales inched higher last month helped lift homebuilder shares.<br />Bill Northey said that This is probably a little bit of an air pocket on light volume in terms of yields,<br />but it is clearly being impacted by the somewhat softer number that we saw out of consumer confidence today,<br />U. S. stock indexes capped another quiet day on Wall Street Wednesday with slight<br />gains, recouping some of the market’s modest losses from a day earlier.<br />Separately, the Conference Board said its latest consumer confidence index declined slightly this month, just missing analysts’ forecasts.<br />Position of the S. & P. 500 index at 1-minute intervals on Wednesday.<br />The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks lost 0.29 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,543.94.<br />The National Association of Realtors said signed contracts to buy U. S. homes increased 0.2 percent in November.<br />Shares in Macy’s and other big retail chains declined a day after scoring gains on strong holiday season sales.<br />Wednesday was another quiet, post-holiday day for the markets, though a couple of economic reports helped drive some trades.
