New York--Wall Street stocks chugged through a week light on US economic data and heavy on anticipation of news on Greece and the US Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 49.38 points (0.28 percent) at 17,898.84, while the broad-based S&P 500 edged up 1.28 (0.06 percent) to 2,094.11.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 17.36 (0.34 percent) to 5,051.10.
"Investors are still very uncertain as to which way the market will break," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at S&P Capital IQ.
"Investors are still concerned about the very high valuations, worried about when the Fed will be raising rates... and they are concerned about what will transpire regarding Greece."
The week's major economic report, May retail sales, jumped a surprisingly robust 1.2 percent in a sign US consumers are beginning to regain confidence after a sluggish first quarter.
That came on the heels of an upbeat May jobs report released last week.
However, analysts said investors are cautious over lofty US equity valuations.
"When the S&P 500 gets over 2,100, it reaches a very stubborn wall. Institutional investors dig in their heels," said Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors.
"It's very hard to make the case for higher stock prices when you're staring down the gun barrel of a hike in interest rates by the Fed."
Besides the Fed, the endless Greek debt saga dragged on sentiment, with stocks veering up and down depending on whether a deal seemed more or less likely.
The week ended on a sour note as eurozone officials confirmed conducting "worst-case" scenarios based on a Greek default, while the IMF walked away from talks, saying the Greeks were being unreasonable.
Greece faces a 1.6-billion-euro ($1.8 billion) payment to the IMF at the end of the month and must persuade creditors to unlock 7.2 billion euros in international bailout funds.
AFP
