Stocks Close Flat as Consumer Weighs

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks traded in a fixed range and finished near the flat line Tuesday after investors weighed weak July consumer confidence against mixed earnings and stronger-than-expected May housing data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12 points, or 0.1%, at 10,538. But the S&P 500 shed a point, or 0.1%, at 1114, and the Nasdaq lost 8 points, or 0.4%, at 2288.

"The news that has been coming out has been quite positive and we've had such a great run, so a little waffling back and forth right now isn't necessarily a bad thing," said David Chalupnik, head of equities at First American Funds.

"Overseas, Deutsche Bank(DB) and UBS(UBS) reported strong earnings, European sovereign CD spreads narrowed again and Spain just completed a high-yield debt auction, so fears about the European debt crisis appear to be fading.

"Plus, we had good earnings out of DuPont(DD) this morning," he said. "So far, 82% of the S&P 500 companies have beat earnings expectations, and the comments we're getting from companies are largely positive, too. It's really not quite the dire situation that we seemed to have in June."

Shares of BP(BP) lost 1.7% today after the company announced that it took a $32.2 billion non-operating charge in the second quarter, resulting in a loss of $5.42 a share. The charge included $2.9 billion for Gulf of Mexico oil spill costs to date and $29.3 billion for future costs. Additionally, BP confirmed that it would replace CEO Tony Hayward with Bob Dudley and said it plans to sell another $23 billion in assets over the next year and a half.

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6%, and Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.07%. The FTSE in London was gained 0.03%, and the DAX in Frankfurt added 0.2%.

>>The Economy

>>Company News

>>Commodities and the Dollar

>>Treasuries