*

Indexes mixed: Dow off 0.21%, S&P 500 up 0.10%, Nasdaq up

0.72%

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American Eagle Outfitters ( AEO ) drops after withdrawing FY

forecast

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AMD gains after announcing $6 billion buyback plan

(Updates with final closing data, trading volume)

By Sinéad Carew and Shashwat Chauhan

May 14 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 closed slightly higher

after flitting between gains and losses during Wednesday's

lackluster session as investors waited for the next batch of

economic data after a robust start to the week spurred by soft

inflation data and a U.S.-China tariff truce.

Investors were watching out for more trade developments

while President Donald Trump toured the Gulf states and secured

$600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia. Some U.S. tech

companies rallied after the administration announced

artificial-intelligence-related deals in the Middle East on

Tuesday.

"There's overhanging uncertainty about what world leaders,

including President Trump are going to say about trade," said

Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in

New York, noting that while earlier tariff policies were on

pause there were no final deals in place.

"The recent announcements have been good and that caused a

huge rally, but we still have uncertainty," he said.

U.S. stocks had rallied sharply on Monday and advanced again

on Tuesday after the United States and China hit pause for 90

days on their fierce tariff dispute.

And it had also helped that data released on Tuesday showed

U.S. consumer prices rebounded moderately in April.

Prior to this week, the U.S. announcement of a 90-day tariff

pause on April 9 for countries other than China and a limited

U.S.-UK trade agreement last week had also helped equities.

U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said on

Wednesday that while recent inflation data pointed to progress

towards the Fed's 2% inflation goal, the outlook was now

uncertain. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the data

did not necessarily reflect the impact of rising tariffs.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is slated to speak on Thursday, and

his comments will be closely watched for clues on how the

central bank plans to proceed with monetary policy easing.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 89.37

points, or 0.21%, to 42,051.06 and its biggest losers were drug

companies Merck & Co ( MRK ), down 4%, and Amgen ( AMGN ), which

finished down 3%.

The S&P 500 gained 6.03 points, or 0.10%, to

5,892.58. This added slightly to its year-to-date gain after

closing higher for the year on Tuesday for the first time since

February 28. The benchmark is still about 4% below its Feb. 19

record closing high, for its sixth straight day of gains.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 136.72 points, or 0.72%,

to 19,146.81.

Eight of the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors closed

lower with Healthcare, down 2.31%, and materials

, down 0.96%, the weakest of the bunch.

The biggest gainers were communications services,

up 1.6%, and technology, which added about 0.96%.

With Wednesday being a relatively quiet day for economic

data, Andrew Graham, managing partner and founder of Jackson

Square Capital, said investors were holding steady before

April's Producer Price Index (PPI) and retail sales readings due

on Thursday morning.

"People are looking for any sort of evidence that the tariff

situation has leaked into the real economy," said Graham, but

with 90-day pauses to tariff policies in place, he said he is

less concerned about April's data readings.

Megacap and growth stocks rose, with Nvidia ( NVDA ) the

biggest S&P 500 boost, rising more than 4%. Chip designer

Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) shares rose 4.7% after it

approved a $6 billion share buyback program.

Boeing ( BA ) shares rose 0.6% after state carrier Qatar

Airways signed a deal to purchase jets from the U.S. planemaker

during Trump's visit to Doha.

In individual stocks, American Eagle Outfitters ( AEO )

shares sank 6.4% after the apparel company withdrew its annual

forecasts, citing tariff-fueled economic uncertainty.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.97-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE where there were 132 new highs and 68 new lows.

On the Nasdaq, 1,612 stocks rose and 2,807 fell as declining

issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.74-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500

posted 3 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows while the Nasdaq

Composite recorded 59 new highs and 104 new lows.

On U.S. exchanges 19.73 billion shares changed hands

compared with the 16.77 billion average for the last 20

sessions.