Nasdaq hits new closing high as stocks inch upward

Stocks inched upward Tuesday with the Nasdaq hitting an all-time closing high as Wall Street built on Friday's rally off a strong jobs report.

But investors also wrestled with fresh data showing a weak reading on productivity and an earnings miss from retailer Gap.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up fractionally -- less than 0.1% -- as did the broader Standard & Poor's 500, which hit a fresh record Friday and finished the day about a point shy of its closing high, 2182.87.

The Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%, setting a new closing record of 5225.48, more than four points above its previous closing record, also set Friday. The S&P 500 had earlier nosed above its record close, but couldn't stay there.

Trading on Wall Street has been subdued since the rally Friday that pushed the broad stock market and technology-packed Nasdaq to fresh peaks.

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"It’s been an extraordinarily quiet start to the week in terms of market prices," Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, said early Tuesday via e-mail.

On the economic front, productivity in July fell 0.5%, missing expectation of a gain of 0.5%. Falling productivity, which measures worker output, is deemed a negative by economists. Small business optimism in July, according to NFIB, edged up to 94.6 from 94.5 in June.

In retail earnings, shares of Gap (GPS) finished down 6.3% after the retailer reported disappointing July sales for both its Gap and Bananna Republic brands. Shares of high-end retailer Coach (COH) ended 2.2% lower as investors reacted to earnings that on the surface topped expectations.

Oil prices wavered, with U.S.-produced crude losing 24 cents, or 0.6%, to $42.78, after dipping below $40 per barrel last week, which caused some alarm among investors.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.547%.

In foreign stock markets, prices were mostly higher. In Europe the broad Stoxx Europe 600 index was 0.9% higher, and shares were also up in Germany, France and London. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.7% higher.