North American stock market indexes hovered around their starting positions Friday at noon, but it wasn't for lack of news.
At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 2 points, to 10,614. The broader S&P 500 was down 1 point, or 0.1 per cent, to 1149.
The lack of direction comes after an upbeat report on U.S. consumer spending led to the usual concerns about the future of U.S. interest rates. As well, investors were concerned about a lower-than-expected reading on consumer confidence, from the University of Michigan.
Within the S&P 500, the 10 subindexes were split evenly between winners and losers. Generally, stocks that are geared toward an economic recovery performed relatively well. Materials rose 0.7 per cent, financials rose 0.2 per cent and information technology stocks rose 0.1 per cent.
However, more defensive names lagged. Utilities and health care stocks were the worst performers, falling 0.7 per cent each. Telecom services fell 0.4 per cent.
In Canada, the benchmark index was similarly directionless after surrendering earlier gains on Friday. At noon, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 4 points, to 11,975.
Materials enjoyed the biggest gains, rising 0.5 per cent after Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. raised its earnings forecast on Thursday evening. Consumer discretionary stocks rose 0.3 per cent after Statistics Canada reported better-than-expected job gains last month.
However, energy stocks fell 0.3 per cent, consumer staples fell 0.6 per cent and telecom services fell 0.9 per cent.