U.S. stocks waver narrowly amid economic data

U.S. stocks fluctuated between small gains and losses in the morning session Tuesday as Wall Street meditated on a batch of economic reports.

Around midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 7.97 points, or 0.04 percent, to 19,208.27. The S&P 500 rose 1.26 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,205.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.29 points, or 0.04 percent, to 5,306.60.

The U.S. goods and services deficit rose 6.4 billion U.S. dollars from September's revised reading to 42.6 billion U.S. dollars in October, generally in line with market consensus, the Commerce Department announced Tuesday.

In a separate report, the department said that U.S. new orders for manufactured goods in October, up four consecutive months, increased 12.5 billion dollars or 2.7 percent to 469.4 billion dollars. This followed a 0.6 percent September increase.

Meanwhile, U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 3.1-percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2016, missing market estimates of 3.3 percent, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Investors also kept a close eye on the U.S. central bank, which is scheduled to hold its policy meeting next week.

The Federal Reserve is largely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, as investors look for clues about the central bank's pace of normalization.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, market expectations for a December rate hike are more than 90 percent.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks rallied, with the Dow refreshing a new closing record, as investors digested Fed comments and a key referendum in Italy. Enditem