By Rodrigo Campos
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Wednesday after paring initial gains, with focus on Thursday's referendum on whether Britain will remain part of the European Union.
Stocks rose early after data showed U.S. home resales rose in May to a more than nine-year high, adding to retail sales and international trade data that painted an upbeat picture of the economy in the second quarter.
The S&P 500 once more hit a ceiling at the 2,100 level, which has been an area where sellers cluster.
Attention remained on Britain's Thursday vote. A poll published on Wednesday showed a statistical tie, with the 'Leave' camp with 45 percent, just one point ahead of 'Remain,' and 9 percent undecided. Oddsmakers, however, showed a clear advantage for the 'Remain' camp.
Investors also kept an eye on U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's second day of testimony to Congress. She repeated her speech from Tuesday, in which she played down the risk of a recession, but warned that the British referendum and a U.S. hiring slowdown posed risks to the economic outlook.
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"Today is a whole lot of nothing," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
"We are clawing back some of the losses from last week and are in a bit of a holding pattern ahead of tomorrow's vote. I think if there is a 'Leave' vote, then a July rate hike is definitely off the table and we might be looking at just one hike in December."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 34.79 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,794.94, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 1.29 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,087.61 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 3.05 points, or 0.06 percent, to 4,840.71.
Tesla Motors
FedEx
Adobe Systems
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 54 new highs and 52 new lows.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
