Dow clings to gain as stocks post mixed finish

U.S. stocks ended near unchanged Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hanging on to a small gain, as investors weighed remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed chief, speaking at a central banking conference in Portugal, said that he sees a path back to 2% inflation while sustaining a strong labor market as monetary policy tightens, but warned there was “no guarantee that we can do that.” The Dow
DJIA,
+0.27%
ended around 81 points higher, up 0.3%, near 31,028, according to preliminary figures. The S&P 500
SPX,
-0.07%
fell around 3 points, or 0.1%, to close near 3,819, while the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-0.03%
lost less than 0.1% to finish near 11,178.