Investing.com - Strong U.S. home sales numbers sent Wall Street stocks gaining on Wednesday though profit taking allowed for choppy trading, as investors jumped to the sidelines to await Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's Thursday testimony.
At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.12%, the S&P 500 index ended the day flat, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 0.10%.
The Commerce Department reported earlier that new home sales jumped 9.6% to 468,000 units in January, blowing past market expectations for a 1% decline to 400,000.
New home sales in December were revised up to 427,000 units from a previously reported 414,000 units.
The numbers renewed perceptions that a wave of soft factory, jobs and other economic indicators hitting the wire this year reflected rough winter weather that disrupted commerce and not an underlying softening of demand.
Investors were looking ahead to testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday for insight as to whether or not the U.S. central bank will maintain the current pace of its cuts to monthly bond purchases.
Markets were expecting that Yellen will echo past statements that the U.S. monetary authority will continue rolling back its asset purchase program, as long as the economy improves as expected, though uncertainty ahead of time sent investors to the sidelines and allowed for choppy trading.
The Fed is currently buying $65 billion in Treasury and mortgage debt a month to suppress interest rates to spur recovery by suppressing borrowing costs to fuel stock market gains.
Monetary authorities hope rising stocks will prompt companies to raise capital and invest in projects, thus creating jobs in the process and lower the nation's stubbornly high jobless rates.
Capping stock gains were concerns that an absence of Fed liquidity injections that lower interest rates may yank equities of a monetary crutch they enjoy when the Fed intervenes, especially in an economy still battling potholes along its road to recovery.
On the earnings front, retailer Target and home improvement retailer Lowe's released earnings that drew applause from the markets.
Leading Dow Jones Industrial Average performers included Wal-Mart Stores, up 1.96%, UnitedHealth, up 0.97%, and DuPont, up 0.92%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst performers included McDonald's, down 0.76%, Exxon Mobil, down 0.54%, and AT&T, down 0.51%.
European indices, meanwhile, finished lower.
After the close of European trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.14%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.40%, while Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.39%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 fell 0.46%.
On Thursday, the U.S. is to release data on durable goods orders and its weekly report on initial jobless claims.