Wall Street flat after selloff, global growth worry lingers

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday after a selloff that took the S&P 500 to its lowest level in nearly two months, as concerns lingered over how a strong dollar and weak global growth may impact corporate earnings.

Costco Wholesale Corp was among the market's leaders, rising 1.9 percent to $127.65 after its profit topped analysts' estimates for the first time in five quarters. Shares hit a record high of $128.95.

China's services sector growth weakened slightly in September as new business cooled in the world's second-largest economy. That follows weak industrial data out of Germany, the euro zone's growth engine.

Weakness in other economies and the expectation that interest rates will begin to rise in the United States as other major central banks continue to ease have boosted the U.S. currency. The dollar index is on track to post its first weekly loss in the last 13.

"Investors are concerned the strong dollar and the weakness in the euro zone will adversely affect third quarter earnings and more importantly guidance for the fourth quarter," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

He said the Ebola epidemic and the advance of Islamic State militants in Syria also kept investors on edge.

The Dow Jones industrial average was rising 5.36 points, or 0.03 percent, to 16,724.75, the S&P 500 was gaining 0.04 points, or 0 percent, to 1,935.14 and the Nasdaq Composite was adding 0.75 points, or 0.02 percent, to 4,385.96.

The largest percentage gainer on the New York Stock Exchange was Acorn International, which jumped 7 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was A10 Networks, down 26.77 percent.

The largest percentage gainer on the Nasdaq was Unilife Corp, up 22.52 percent, while the largest percentage decliner was Interface Inc, down 17.57 percent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Bank Of America, up 0.12 percent to $16.90; Ford Motor, down 1.13 percent to $13.94 and Petrobras, up 0.06 percent to $16.47.

On the Nasdaq, GT Advanced Technologies, up 43 percent to $1.73 and Cisco Systems, down 0.6 percent to $24.50 were among the most actively traded.

Advancing issues were outnumbering declining ones on the NYSE by 1,554 to 1,131, for a 1.37-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,230 issues were rising and 1,002 falling for a 1.23-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 2 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 7 new highs and 115 new lows.

Minutes from the most recent meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve are due at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). With the Fed set to complete rolling back its massive monthly bond-buying purchases this month, investors will be looking for clues on how soon it plans to lift interest rates.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)