Markets Right Now: US stocks waver in early trading

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (All times local):

9:35 a.m.

Stocks are wavering between small gains and losses in early trading on Wall Street on the last day of trading for the year.

Materials and energy stocks were rising in early trading Friday, while high-dividend stocks like utilities and phone companies gave back some of the gains the made a day earlier.

Mining company Freeport-McMoRan rose 1.6 percent and Cabot Oil & Gas climbed 2 percent.

Iconix Brand Group rose 4.4 percent after saying it would sell its Sharper Image business.

The Dow Jones industrial average was little changed at 19,826.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was also flat at 2,249. The Nasdaq composite slipped 1 point to 5,429.

Small-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 edged higher.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.47 percent.