Wall Street closes little changed

U.S. stocks closed the day near opening levels on Thursday as the positive impact of strong earning reports and Republicans' success to send the healthcare bill to the Senate was countered by the weak performance of energy shares amid falling commodity prices.

• Forex today: CAD lower lead by drop in WTI, US dollar on its knees and euro takes off

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 6.43 points, or 0.03%, to 20,951.47. The barrel of WTI lost more than 4% on Thursday and Exxon Mobil's shares declined 1.3% while Chevron's shares lost 1.8%. The energy sector as a whole lost 1.9% percent and dragged the S&P 500 lower during the day. However, the index was able to make a late recovery and gained 1.39 points, or 0.06%, to 2,389.52. Fİnally, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 2.79 points, or 0.05%, to 6,075.34.

Commenting on the passage of the healthcare bill, "I don’t know if this market is really that focused on healthcare as the big issue... I think they’re really focused on the tax plan. If they couldn’t pass the healthcare, it would bode very poorly for the tax plan," Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey, told Reuters.

Headlines from the U.S. session:

• US Dollar remains near daily lows even after US House approves healthcare bill
• Oil intermarket: DXY and oil highly correlated, can WTI thus bounce back?
• Healthcare bill has the 216 votes to pass U.S. House; bill now goes to the Senate
• US March Factory Orders: Despite headline miss, a firming in core capital goods - Wells Fargo
• US: Trade contributes positively to Q1 GDP growth - Wells Fargo
• Although Fed argues that full employment is at hand, underemployment is a growing problem - BBH
• US: Goods and services deficit was $43.7 bln in March, down $0.1 bln from $43.8 bln in February
• US: Productivity declines 0.6% in 1st quarter 2017 (annual rate); unit labor costs rise 3.0%