Wall Street was mixed in early afternoon trade in New York Tuesday as investors waited for the US Federal Reserve to issue its latest decision on interest rates before committing to anything serious.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.03 percent lower to 13,464.88, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.09 percent to 2,544.98 but the S&P 500 had added 0.19 percent to 1,470.52.
In addition to the expected rate decision, investors were also looking at new data from the Labor Department that showed productivity was up by 1.8 percent on an annualized basis in the spring quarter.
Among those reporting quarterly results, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) added 40 cents to $18.30 even though it said profits were down in the second quarter.
Cisco Systems (NAS: CSCO; SEHK: 4333) dropped 13 cents to $29.37 ahead of a quarterly report that was due after the close of trade on the session.
Hurting the Dow were Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), which was 42 cents lower to $80.58 and aerospace group Boeing (NYSE: BA), which fell $1.32 to $103.02.
Carmakers saw gains.
Ford Motor (NYSE: F) had added 6 cents to $8.25, while General Motors (NYSE: GM) was up 58 cents to $33.03.
Financial services were higher. Citigroup (NYSE: C) was 15 cents higher to $48.50 and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) added 40 cents to $48.56, while Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER; TYO: 8675) gained $1.28 to $75.83 and Goldman Sachs was $3.42 higher to $75.83.