NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Wall Street was largely unchanged on Thursday (Dec 5) as market participants stayed on the sidelines, awaiting further developments in the hoped-for interim trade deal between the United States and China.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were slightly higher and the Nasdaq nominally lower, their losses held in check by a rise in tech stocks.

Markets have been whipsawed in recent days as conflicting reports on whether the world's two largest economies would be able to arrive at a "phase one" agreement prior to Dec 15, when a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports is scheduled to take effect.

"We're on hold until we see what happens on the trade front," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. "People are trying to get a read on what's going to happen with the trade talks and the next relevant deadline is Dec 15."

Market participants appeared to show little heed to the drama unfolding in Washington as the US House of Representatives prepared to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

"What impacts investor psychology is uncertainty, and I don't think there's any uncertainty as to how (the impeachment proceedings) will play out," Carlson added.

"At the end of the day, whether there's an impeachment or not isn't going to stop a money manager from deciding whether or not he'll by Intel."

The articles of impeachment stem from a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations that would benefit him politically.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 17.89 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 27,667.67, the S&P 500 gained 2.02 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 3,114.78 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.35 points, to 8,566.32.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500 seven were trading in the red.

Materials stocks were the biggest winners, while consumer staples suffered the largest percentage drop.

Nike gained 1.8 per cent following Goldman Sachs' upgrade of the sportswear maker's stock to "buy" from "neutral."

Kroger shares fell 3.5 per cent after the supermarket chain missed Wall Street earnings estimates, hurt by stiff competition from Walmart and Amazon.com.

Online craft retailer Etsy dipped 2.7 per cent on the heels of a downgrade to "underweight" by Morgan Stanley.

SecureWorks jumped 22.8 per cent, on course for its best day ever, after the cyber security firm posted a surprise third-quarter profit.

Sage Therapeutics Inc tumbled 59.1 per cent after its depression drug failed in a late-stage study.

On the economic front, a shrinking trade deficit, a drop in jobless claims and a rebound in factory orders suggested a still-robust, if slowing, US economy.

Investors now look to Friday's employment report from the US Labour Department, which is expected to show an increase of 180,000 nonfarm payrolls in November.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.02-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 46 new highs and 53 new lows.