The S&P 500 shed 0.91 points, or 0.06 percent, to close at 1649.60. The Nasdaq edged down 0.28 points, or 0.01 percent, to finish at 3459.14.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) was on track for a weekly decline of more than 1% to end a four-week up streak as investors fretted over hints the Federal Reserve may scale back its bond purchases and a sell-off in Japanese stocks.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) executives said they believe the company has �met every criteria� for re-inclusion in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Signs of improvement in US housing and labour helped indexes come off their lows by midday. Earlier, the S&P 500 traded below its 14-day moving average before bouncing back above it.

But Gross should also be recognized for another feat: operating stock funds that have surpassed the S&P 500. During the past five years, his PIMCO Fundamental IndexPLUS (PXTIX) returned 13.8% annually, compared with 6.1% for the S&P 500, according ...

Collective dividends per share for Standard & Poor's 500 companies increased roughly 16% year-over-year in 2012. Meanwhile, the number of companies paying a dividend over that period reached a new 13-year high of 405, or roughly 81% of the S&P 500, ...

Hedge funds gained 5.4 percent on average through May 10, compared with a 15.4 percent rise for the S&P 500 (SPX) and a 14.8 percent increase for the typical mutual fund, a team of Goldman Sachs analysts led by Amanda Sneider and David Kostin wrote ...

Returning to the S&P 500, whose sole carrier is Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV), probably would draw new investors and mark a milestone in Delta's recovery since its removal in 2005 about a month before filing for bankruptcy.

For those who take delight in the so-called �smart money� underperforming the �dumb money,� here are some enjoyable new data points that show hedge funds continue to be an overpriced, middling asset class.

There continues to be mixed data regarding the strength of the economic recovery in America. This is creating an interesting divergence between the level of the S&P 500 and the growth rate of the economic recovery, which is far less than many had ...