Wall Street flat as consumer stocks, weak earnings weigh

The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.66 points, or 0.04%, at 6,382.3

The US stocks traded little changed in late morning session on Thursday, struggling to hold on to the record highs on the S&P and the Nasdaq, weighed by a drop in consumer discretionary stocks and disappointing earnings by some big names.

Home Depot fell 4.1 percent, shaving off 45 points off the Dow and weighing the most on the S&P 500.

Sears soared 20 percent after the retailer said it would sell its Kenmore home appliances on Amazon.com and integrate the brand's smart gadgets with the online giant's Alexa digital assistant.

The news, however, dragged down the shares of fellow retailer Best Buy by 4 percent.

Cigarette maker Philip Morris was down 2.8 percent after its quarterly profit missed expectations and was among the top drags on the S&P.

Qualcomm fell 4.7 percent after the chipmaker's forecast missed estimates.

Still, overall earnings continue to beat expectations which, along with a rally in technology shares, helped all three major indexes to close at a record high on Wednesday.

Analysts are estimating an 8.7 percent rise in second-quarter earnings and a 4.6 percent increase in revenue for the S&P 500 companies from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Visa, Microsoft and eBay are due to report results after the closing bell.

"Earnings are going to surprise to the upside and so far it's been good," said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company.

"I think the one thing that's changed is now we're getting revenue growth because in many cases the world is doing better. That's the big change to the economy over the past year and that's what will keep the fire burning in the future."

At 10:58 a.m. ET (1458 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 11.64 points, or 0.05 percent, at 21,629.11, the S&P 500 was up 0.92 points, or 0.03 percent, at 2,474.75.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.66 points, or 0.04 percent, at 6,382.38.

Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the telecommunications index's 0.60 percent rise leading the advancers.

Economic data showed weekly jobless claims fell to a five-month low. Claims fell to 233,000, below the 245,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Abbott Laboratories rose 1.9 percent after the healthcare company raised its full-year profit forecast.

Property and casualty insurer Travelers was down 2.2 percent after reporting a drop in quarterly profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,472 to 1,231. On the Nasdaq, 1,337 issues rose and 1,271 fell.