Mixed economic data, higher dollar press stocks

NEW YORK -- Investors became cautious on the second trading day of the year as a pair of economic reports sent mixed signals about how the recovery was going.

Stocks ended flat a day after the Dow Jones industrials soared more than 150 points on a series of upbeat manufacturing reports from around the globe.

The economic news on Tuesday was more muddled. A strong report on factory orders mainly offset bad news about a plunge in home sales in November.

The Dow is down 12 at 10,572. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 4 at 1,137. The Nasdaq composite index is up less than 1 at 2,309.

Three stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume totaled 1.2 billion shares, up slightly from Monday.