Wall Street in holiday mode ahead of long weekend

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - U.S. stocks were little changed in early afternoon trading on Friday, taking a breather after six straight days of gains and ahead of a three-day holiday weekend.

Another strong day for consumer stocks was offset by weakness in healthcare and real estate stocks, leaving the market in danger of snapping its six-day winning streak, which is its longest since February.

The streak - one that included record high closes for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on Thursday - has put all three major indexes on track to post their strongest weekly gains since the end of April.

"We've reached new highs and we expect days of strong gains. Investors may be taking a breather as we head into the holiday weekend," said Emily Roland, head of investment research at John Hancock Investments in Boston.

At 12:32 p.m. ET (1632 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9.32 points, or 0.04 percent, at 21,073.63, the S&P 500 was down 0.22 points, or 0.00 percent, at 2,414.85.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 1.83 points, or 0.03 percent, at 6,207.09.

Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led for the second session in a row by consumer stocks.

The consumer staples index rose 0.18 percent and the consumer discretionary index was up 0.16 percent.

Shares of Costco Wholesale rose 1.8 percent to $177.99 and was among the biggest drivers of the S&P and Nasdaq, after the warehouse club operator reported a strong profit.

Ulta Beauty jumped 3.3 percent, the second most on the S&P, after the company raised its full-year forecast.

Deckers Outdoor Corp rose as much as 21 percent to a nine-month high after reporting a surprise quarterly profit.

Among the laggards, GameStop fell 6.7 percent to $22.02 as the videogame retailer left its full-year earnings forecast unchanged despite beating profit estimates.

Earlier in the day, a report showed that the U.S. economy grew at a 1.2 percent pace in the first quarter, slightly more than the 0.7 percent growth estimated earlier. The higher reading was in line with economists' expectations.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,402 to 1,393. On the Nasdaq, 1,574 issues fell and 1,163 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 51 new 52-week highs and eight new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 78 new highs and 44 new lows.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Gayathree Ganesan; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Anil D'Silva)