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New York - Wall Street stocks moved mostly higher this week despite mixed earnings from big retailers and caution about swelling equity valuations.
The Dow and S&P 500 both notched record closes during the week before retreating a bit, while the Nasdaq ended less than three points away from its all-time high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40.54 points at 18 232.02 compared with last Friday.
But the broad-based S&P 500 advanced 3.33 points to 2 126.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 41.07 points to 5089.36.
Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors said stocks would probably stall given current valuations and the prospect of higher interest rates.
"For stock markets, 2013 and 2014 had been very good years and now it has hit what I call the wall of valuation, becoming somewhat overvalued," Johnson said.
The week was relatively light on economic indicators, leaving minutes from the Federal Reserve's April policy meeting as one of the most watched calendar items.
The minutes cast further doubt on the prospects of an imminent hike to the near-zero federal funds rate, with "many" policy makers viewing a June rate increase as "unlikely".
In a speech on Friday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen reaffirmed that the Fed was on track to raise interest rates this year. However, she also warned that the US economy continues to show weakness, with significant job market slack not reflected in the 5.4% jobless rate.
Alan Skrainka, chief investment officer at Cornerstone Wealth Management, said the Fed's plan could weigh on stocks unless the economy picks up.
"We need to see some real momentum, better growth outside of just jobs growth," he said.
"We need to see a pickup in spending, a pickup in investment to justify the Fed engaging in a cycle of Fed rate hikes. Or else the market is going to say this is a mistake."
Among retailers reporting earnings, Dow member Home Depot was a bright spot. The home-improvement chain lifted its full-year profit forecast after US comparable stores sales rose 7.1% in the first quarter.
Best Buy and Target also released strong results.
But Wal-Mart Stores, the world's biggest retailer, disappointed with a seven percent drop in quarterly earnings to $3.3bn in its fiscal first quarter due to higher costs, including the company's wage hike for its US staff.
Walmart's 1.1% gain in US comparable-stores sales for the quarter ending April 30 was also below some analyst forecasts.
Others to disappoint included home-improvement retailer Lowe's and the youth apparel chains Urban Outfitters and Gap.
"As far as we can tell, spending is very tepid," Skrainka said. "Consumers are cautious, company executives are cautious."
In deal news, US drugstore chain CVS Health announced it would buy Omnicare, which provides pharmacy-related services to long-term care facilities, for $12.7bn.
In another health-sector acquisition, Endo International announced it would pay $8.05bn for privately held US firm Par Pharmaceutical Holdings to strengthen its generic drugs business.
Ascena Retail Group struck a deal to buy women's apparel company ANN, parent of chain Ann Taylor, for $2.2bn.
Major economic reports next week include the Conference Board's report on May consumer confidence, durable goods orders for April and the government's second estimate of first-quarter economic growth.
US equity markets are closed Monday in observance of the Memorial Day holiday.
