The New York equities markets moved little on Thursday on a mixed batch of economic news. The Dow Jones Industrial average was up a bit to 10,558.75, the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2 percent to 2,146.15, and the S&P 500 gained a fraction to end the session at 1,227.71.

One analyst said that the market’s unwillingness to move too much stemmed from uncertainty over what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates when it meets on September 20.

Meanwhile, government figures showed that inflation was being kept in check, but reports from the New York and Philadelphia Federal Reserve Banks showed that manufacturing costs were higher and orders were down in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In addition, first time unemployment claims jumped by 71,000 last week, also largely due to Katrina.

Shares in internet search companies were mixed on the day. Google dropped 0.1 percent to $302.62 when it priced its $4 billion secondary share offering at $295 per share, while Chinese internet search company Baidu gained 0.8 percent to $82 after a 28 percent drop on Wednesday.

Time Warner, meanwhile, added 3.2 percent to $18.48 on newspaper rumors that it was in talks about selling a part of its stake in AOL to Microsoft. Shares in Microsoft was up 0.2 percent on the news.

In the fast food sector, McDonald’s led the Dow ahead of an analysts’ meeting, advancing by 3.4 percent to $33.45.