S&P 500 ekes out record

Despite a day of mostly listless trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index managed to notch another all-time high.

The index on Monday inched past its most recent record-high close set on Friday, extending its gain for the year to 10.4 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average also ended higher after briefly eclipsing its most recent high. The Nasdaq composite ended lower.

The latest milestone for the S&P 500 came on a day when the major U.S. stock indexes mostly hovered between small gains and losses as investors weighed the implications of an economic slowdown in Japan that worsened in the third quarter into a recession.

In the end, the S&P rose 1.50 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,041.32. That's just ahead of its previous all-time high close of 2,039.82 on Friday.

The Dow gained 13.01 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,647.75. The Nasdaq composite fell 17.54 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,671.