Wall Street holds near record highs in light volume

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday, holding near record highs on a day of light volume, though a number of retail stocks traded heavily after reporting results.

Both Tiffany & Co TIF.N and apparel retailer Express Inc EXPR.N rose after posting quarterly revenue that topped expectations and raising their full-year profit views.

Shares of Tiffany rose 1.1 percent to $101.89 while Express jumped 13.6 percent to $16.57 on volume that easily eclipsed its 50-day average.

Best Buy Co Inc was the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer, up 5.5 percent at $31.44. The electronics retailer rebounded from a drop of 6.8 percent on Tuesday after it forecast a drop in full-year sales.

The S&P retail index edged up 0.1 percent. After a sluggish start to the year, the index is up 8.4 percent for August, on pace for its best month since October 2011.

On the downside, apparel retailer Chico's FAS Inc fell 3.8 percent to $15.41 after its results.

"There have been pros and cons," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

"It's time to play catch-up now, if there really is a recovery that is a strong as it is supposed to be then you would expect these retailers to be doing well, and if you are seeing signs of it then that would make sense."

The trading range for major indexes was among the narrowest of the year. Volume was depressed with some market participants on vacation ahead of the Labor Day long weekend holiday in the United States.

"It's August and all that, but I haven't seen this kind of low volume in a while," said Saluzzi.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.21 points, or 0.08 percent, to 17,120.91, the S&P 500 lost 0.06 point to 1,999.96, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.25 points, or 0.03 percent, to 4,571.88.

A mere 4.54 points separated the S&P 500's high and low on Wednesday, making for the narrowest one-day trading range since July 2.

Equities have been strong of late, with the S&P 500 closing above 2,000 for the first time on Tuesday, marking its 30th record close of the year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The Dow also made an intraday record high on Tuesday, but was unable to close at a record.

Analog Devices Inc ADI.O was one of the S&P 500's biggest decliners, off 2.7 percent at $50.78 a day after reporting third-quarter results.

Even so, the Nasdaq 100 is on track for its 11th straight advance, its longest winning streak in about 14 months.

Digital Ally Inc fell 14.4 percent to $12.23 on heavy volume, pulling back after a massive rally that had driven the stock's price up more than 200 percent in August alone. The wearable camera maker has reported heightened demand since Aug. 9, when a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, triggering weeks of protests.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lesli)