Wall Street Sees Another Flat Day

US markets have finished little changed, with petrol-linked shares rallying while pharmaceutical companies came under pressure.

The Dow Jones ended down less than 0.1 percent at 25,536. The S&P 500 shed 0.1 percent to 2,913, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.3 percent to 7,910.

"The market is very subdued this week, taking sort of a pause and a breather before news around the G20 and the debate on interest rates," said Nate Thooft, senior portfolio manager of Manulife Asset Management.

All three indices had been in positive territory most of the day, but the Dow and S&P 500 dipped into the red near the end of the session.

Investors are hoping that G20 talks between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will yield progress toward resolving the year-long trade dispute.

Sales of US durable goods fell 1.3 percent to US$243.4 billion in May, US data showed, with the crisis involving the Boeing 737 MAX weighing on the figures.

Petrol companies Apache and Devon Energy advanced around three percent each after a bullish US oil inventory report lifted oil prices.

Chip companies were another strong sector following a healthy earnings report from Micron Technology, which surged 13.3 percent after reporting unexpectedly good third-quarter earnings.

Other chip companies also advanced, including Western Digital, which gained 7.3 percent and Nvidia, which gained 5.1 percent.

But pharmaceutical companies were under pressure, with Dow member Pfizer and Merck both losing about two percent.

An exception among drug producers was AbbVie, which jumped 3.5 percent a day after unveiling a $63 billion takeover of Allergan. Shares of AbbVie had fallen sharply on Tuesday following the announcement. (AFP)