Wall Street flat in third day of thin trade

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday for a third consecutive day of muted action as economic data did little to spark investor interest before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak on Friday.

Daily volume so far this week has been light even for a seasonally slow period, with the trading volumes well below their daily average, an indication that market participants are reluctant to make any major investment moves ahead of the Fed chairman's speech.

Bernanke addresses a conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and could announce new measures to boost growth. He is expected to stoke expectations for a third round of quantitative easing, though he may not detail the timing of such a measure.

Further damping activity was the European Central Bank meeting on September 6 and a host of U.S. economic data scheduled for next week, including the Labor Department's payrolls report for August.

"Putting that all together into the mix, investors are sitting on the sidelines and we've seen a flat market most of the week," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

"The bets are all squared off and it's in a wait-and-see mode."

The S&P dipped over the past two sessions, but the decline was less than 0.1 percent on both days. It hasn't closed with a 1 percent move in either direction since August 3.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 7.32 points, or 0.06 percent, to 13,110.31. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> gained 0.98 point, or 0.07 percent, to 1,410.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 0.16 points, or 0.01 percent, to 3,077.30.

The S&P 500 has been pinned in a fairly tight range over the last three weeks, finding support at 1,400 while also unable to convincingly pierce the April high of 1,422.38, which has acted as a resistance point.

Gross domestic product grew 1.7 percent in the second quarter, the government said in a revised estimate. The figure was in line with economists' expectations. Last month the government estimated GDP rose 1.5 percent.

Pending home sales rose 2.4 percent in July, a bigger rise than had been expected and reaching their highest level in more than two years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Later in the session, investors will parse the Federal Reserve's Beige Book of economic conditions at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Shares of customer reviews website Yelp Inc jumped 21 percent to $22.10, the day insiders were free to sell their holdings, in a bit of a surprise for investors.

WellPoint Inc Chief Executive Angela Braly abruptly stepped down late Tuesday following growing investor dissatisfaction with the health insurer's financial performance. Shares rose 7.8 percent to $61.86.

Joy Global Inc slipped 0.6 percent to $53.47 as one of the worst performers on the S&P 500 after cutting its profit outlook for a second time this year, citing slowing growth in Asia and Europe.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-ends-flat-volume-among-lightest-002901139--sector.html

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