By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended a choppy session slightly higher on Wednesday helped by a rise in financials after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said it "makes sense" to gradually lift interest rates.
The S&P financials index <.SPSY> rose 0.8 percent, adding to gains late in the session following Yellen's remarks to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.
Financials have rallied since the November U.S. election on expectations of higher rates and of reduced regulations under President-elect Donald Trump.
Goldman Sachs was down 0.6 percent and Citigroup fell 1.7 percent, however. Both reported quarterly results earlier in the day.
The Dow ended lower for the fourth day in a row. The frenetic post-election rally in U.S. equities has slowed in recent weeks as investors wait for Trump to work on his campaign promises. Investors hope to get more insight following his inauguration on Friday.
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"You might see people taking a break here and moving to the sidelines just to see what type of shape the environment takes as far as policy," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 22.05 points, or 0.11 percent, to 19,804.72, the S&P 500 gained 4 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,271.89 and the Nasdaq Composite added 16.93 points, or 0.31 percent, to 5,555.65.
Qualcomm rose 1.5 percent, helping boost the Nasdaq after Morgan Stanley said in a note the U.S. government may be reluctant to pursue an antitrust case against the company.
On the down side, shares of Target fell 5.8 percent after the brick-and-mortar chain reported dismal results for the holiday season and cut its quarterly earnings forecast.
Also, UnitedHealth was off 1.8 percent at $157.74 a day after reporting results.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.28-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and four new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 76 new highs and 27 new lows.
About 6.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, slightly above the 6.1 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.
(Editing by Andrew Hay and James Dalgleish)