Tuesday's early afternoon trade: stocks little changed, held back by Wal-Mart

US stocks were little changed on Tuesday, constrained by Wal-Mart's weak results and as investors took a breather after a rally that took the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 to record closing highs the previous day.
Stronger-than-expected housing data also suggested that the Federal Reserve could have room to raise interest rates sooner rather than later. US housing starts jumped to their highest level in nearly 7-1/2 years in April and permits soared.
"I definitely think the markets are overvalued at this time but it's the only place where capital is going," said Drew Horter, founder of Horter Investment Management in Cincinnati.
The S&P 500 is trading at 17.1 times forward earnings, compared with its 10-year median of 14.7, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Seven of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were down in early afternoon trading, with the energy index weighing the most with a 1.2 percent fall. Schlumberger was down 2.9 percent, making it the biggest drag on the index.
At 12:34 am ET (1634 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was up 8.98 points, or 0.05 percent, at 18,307.86, the S&P 500 was down 0.19 points, or 0.01 percent, at 2,129.01 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 6.13 points, or 0.12 percent, at 5,072.31.
Wal-Mart's shares were down 3.98 percent at $76.74 and were the biggest drag on the Dow and the S&P 500 after the company reported lower-than-expected US same-store sales growth.
Home Depot was down 0.9 percent at $113.27 after the company reported quarterly results.