NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stock indexes essentially hit the snooze bar Thursday as investors were relieved the European Central Bank didn't announce any changes to its stimulus policies.
Europe's central bank maintained its current policies and ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank hasn't even set a date for considering changes. Investors were startled a month ago when he spoke about scaling back the bank's billions of dollars in monthly bond purchases.
On an up-and-down day of trading, second-quarter results moved other stocks: health care companies including Abbott Laboratories climbed and paint, trucking and railroad companies fell.
Sears announced an online appliance sales pact with Amazon.com, and appliance makers and home improvement stores dropped. But overall the market hardly budged. While stocks have been setting record highs for most of 2017, including Wednesday, the market is having its quietest year in decades.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped at the finish and lost 0.38 points to 2,473.45. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 28.97 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,611.78. The Nasdaq composite rose 4.96 points, or 0.1 percent, to a record high of 6,390. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gained 0.58 points to 1,442.35, also a record.
The S&P 500 has only had four moves of 1 percent or greater this year. In a typical year that happens more than 50 times.