U.S. stocks swayed between slender gains and losses on Tuesday as a round of lackluster economic data weighed on the market, but a weaker dollar boosted energy and materials stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 7 points at 11562 in recent trading.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% to 2660. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index edged down less than one point to 1257.

The day's cluster of weaker-than-expected data included an index of consumer confidence from the Conference Board, a private research group, that fell to 52.5 in December, below the 57.0 reading expected by economists.

While traders were surprised by the report, some said early holiday shopping figures were a better indication that consumer spending is recovering.

"It appears that there's a disconnect between the consumer confidence index and the reality of what's occurring out there," said Joe Heider, principal at Rehmann, citing encouraging recent retail sales figures.

Still, consumer discretionary stocks slid in the data's wake. Toy-maker Hasbro lost 2.1%, while fast-food company Yum Brands fell 1.1% and Limited Brands, operator of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, shed 1.2%.

In bleak news for the housing market, the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes reported U.S. home prices declined 1.2% in October from September in 10 major metropolitan areas, while the 20-city index fell 1.3%. The 20-city index fell 0.8% from a year earlier, more than the 0.6% decline economists had predicted. Homebuilders slid, including D.R. Horton, off 2.1%, PulteGroup, down 1.9% and Lennar, which fell 0.9%.

In one bright spot, economic activity among manufacturers in the central Atlantic region expanded at a rapid clip this month, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The service sector also showed great improvement.

"The drop in consumer confidence is unexpected and could raise some doubts in the market, but on the other side we're also impressed by the pickup in Richmond index," said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments. "There are clearly a lot of headwinds facing the global recovery but on balance, the U.S. economy should enter 2011 on a fairly good foot."

Trading volume is expected to be light this week and Monday's trading saw the year's lightest volume of any full session. In a week traditionally light due to holiday vacations, the Northeast continued to dig out of a snowstorm that dumped more than 20 inches of snow on New York City. By mid-day on Tuesday, just under 1 billion shares had traded hands in New York Stock Exchange Composite volume. The 2010 average for a full-day sesssion is around 4.8 billion shares.

Metals and mining stocks rebounded after dipping Monday in the wake of China's interest-rate hikes and benefited on Tuesday from a weaker dollar. Titanium Metals gained 2.2%, Newmont Mining climbed 2.7% and United States Steel rose 0.8%.