U.S. Indexes End Slightly Higher After Range Bound Session

U.S. stocks edged higher yesterday, just before closing bell, after a relatively flat session, as investors sifted through a mixed-bag of economic reports.

Prior to opening bell, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its manufacturing index dropped to negative 5.9 in August, its first contraction since October. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected the index would come in at plus 6.0.

After the market open, the National Association of Home Builders reported that its survey of confidence climbed in August to its highest level in more than five years on expectations the U.S. housing recovery is on track.

The Mortgage Bankers' Association (MBA) reported an overall decline in mortgage loans of 4.5% week over week, coming on of last week's loss of 1.8%. The MBA purchase index slipped 2.0% week over week, higher than the 1.0% decrease seen last week. The MBA refinancing index declined 5% week over week, adding to a loss of 2.0% the previous week. This index points to consumer attitudes in that most consumers will not take on a mortgage or refinancing if they are bearish about the economy.

Also Wednesday, the Labor Department said that consumer prices were unchanged for July, or rose 0.1% when excluding volatile categories like food and energy.

Industrial production in July continued its advance, rising 0.6%, over the consensus estimate of 0.5% change. The capacity utilization rate rose to 79.4%, topping consensus estimate of 79.2%. Manufacturing came in month over month at 0.5%, which was in line with expectations. These measures point to the general pulse of the economy and indicate the health of the manufacturing sector as well as factory capacity.

In commodities, gold futures ended higher, breaking a two-day losing streak, gaining 0.3% to settle at $1,606.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil futures ended at nearly a three-month high, climbing 1% to settle at $94.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The climb came after the weekly Energy Information Administration report showed a steep decline in crude supplies.

Here's where the markets stood at end-of-day:

US MARKETS

NYSE Composite Index is up 5.80 points (+0.07%) at 8,025.34

Dow Jones Industrial Index is down 7.36 points (-0.06%) at 13,164.78

S&P 500 is up 1.6 points (+0.11%) at 1,405.53

Nasdaq Composite Index is up 13.95 points (+0.46%) at 3,030.93

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

FTSE 100 is down 31.74 (-0.54%) to 5833.04

DAX is down 27.59 (-0.40%) to 6946.80

CAC 40 is down 1.07 (-0.03%) to 3449.20

Nikkei 225 is down 4.84 (-0.05%) to 8925.04

Hang Seng Index is down 239.39 (+1.18%) to 20052.29

Shanghai China Composite Index is down 23.58 (-1.10%) to 2118.94

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) SNFCA, Q2 Earnings Grow, YOY

(+) AOSL, Posts Q4 EPS In-Line, Sales Beat, Q1 2013 Guidance Straddles Ests.

(+) REGI, Turns to Profit in Q2; EPS, Revenues Top Expectations

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) TBOW, Q2 Revenues, Sales Fall vs. Year Ago

(-) SPLS, Posts Q2 EPS In Line, Revenues Just Shy of Estimates; Guides FY12 Revenues In Line

(-) CSIQ, Posts Wider Q2 Loss vs. Estimates, Misses on Revenue