"It's been a spectacular year and, from an institutional standpoint, people are locking in profits," said Janet Engels, director of Private Client research group at RBC Dain Rauscher. "The negative earnings releases certainly weigh on the market, because it has built in fairly high expectations for earnings."

The Dow industrials closed up 0.2 percent, at 10,145.26.The Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.2 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.1 percent.

The dollar hit a new low against the euro yesterday. The euro rose to an all-time high of $1.2422 and then settled at $1.2404 in late New York trading, topping Tuesday's previous high of $1.2361.

Stocks have pushed higher in recent days as investors grow confident the economy is rebounding with few signs of inflation, which would drive up interest rates. Still, analysts are concerned that share valuations might be getting a bit high.

Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at Spencer Clarke LLC, said: "As we head into the new year, the economic backdrop remains extremely positive. ... The missing ingredient so far has been the lack of jobs. If we do start to finally see a pickup in hiring in the new year, that should lead investors to be somewhat more optimistic."

Circuit City Stores shares declined 74 cents to $10.34 after the electronics retailer swung to a quarterly profit even as sales fell slightly from a year ago.

FedEx dropped $3.30 to $71.01 after the delivery firm reported a 63 percent decline in profits that was worse than Wall Street's forecasts.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners about 8 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was moderate at 1.83 billion shares, slightly higher than the 1.82 billion traded Tuesday.