U.S. stocks waver narrowly amid economic data

U.S. stocks traded mixed around midday Wednesday as Wall Street digested a slew of economic reports while awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting.

By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.58 points, or 0.21 percent, to 19,063.45. The S&P 500 fell 2.41 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,200.53. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 19.32 points, or 0.36 percent, to 5,367.03.

U.S. new orders for manufactured durable goods in October increased 11.0 billion U.S. dollars or 4.8 percent to 239.4 billion dollars, well above market consensus, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

In a separate report, the department announced that sales of new single-family houses in October 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000, missing market estimates of 590,000.

This is 1.9 percent below the revised September rate of 574,000, but is 17.8 percent above the October 2015 estimate of 478,000.

In the week ending Nov. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 251,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in at 53.9 in November, up from 53.4 in October, signaling a further solid improvement in overall business conditions across the manufacturing sector.

Investors also kept a close eye on the Federal Reserve's minutes from its November meeting scheduled for release in the afternoon, for more clues on the timing of the next rate hike.

U.S. stock markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks ended at record highs, with the Dow closing above the round-number mark of 19,000 for the first time ever, as investors digested the country's strong existing home sales data. Endite