Stocks on Wall Street were flat in late trading Thursday after a mixed performance during the day as investors digested upbeat corporate earnings and new statistics on the economy.

Just before the close, the three indexes gained ground, reversing declines in early afternoon trading that analysts had attributed partly to profit-taking, or because of a rise in the dollar.

Bank of America shares fell more than 3 percent, dragging down the Dow Jones industrial average, which was 27.7 points, or 0.25 percent, up a half hour before the closing.

Citigroup shares were down by more than 1 percent.

The financial sector in general has been struggling to overcome the continuing foreclosure crisis. Earlier in the week state attorneys general announced an investigation into foreclosure processes in their states.

“The prospects of mortgage issues from a foreclosure perspective and more fundamentally the potential for bad loan repurchases — that certainly weighed on the bigger names here,” said Jason Arnold, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets Corp.

The Nasdaq composite index declined 3.11 points, or 0.1 percent. The broader Standards & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 0.2 points, or 0.02 percent.

Fresh from a strong performance on Wednesday that saw a rise of about 1 percent or more for the three major indexes, the stock markets surged Thursday soon after the opening. Within the first hours of trading the Dow at one point touched a high of more than 100 points, and the broader market had increased by almost 1 percent.

The performance suggested that the market had recovered from the one-day jolt it experienced on Tuesday after the surprise announcement by China’s central bank that it would raise interest rates for the first time in nearly three years. On Thursday new economic data from China indicated that growth had slowed in the third quarter, although it remained robust.

New earnings reports have also helped fuel increases since Tuesday, and reports Thursday from Caterpillar, AT&T and other bellwether companies matched expectations or came in better than forecasts, helping to lift indexes.

Caterpillar said that its sales and revenues increased to $11 billion in the third quarter, and that it expected continued growth in 2011. It revised its sales and revenue outlook for all of 2010 was up 28 percent, to between $41 to $42 billion.

Caterpillar is always closely watched because of the international nature of its business and because it often provides an outlook for economic performance over a subsequent period, said Dan Greenhaus, the chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Company bad credit payday advance.

In its earnings presentation, the company acknowledged that the recovery in the United States was weak and said developing economies were leading the company’s growth. The observation was largely in line with some other companies’ forecasts that have attributed their growth to international markets.

In a statement, Caterpillar said: “2010 is shaping up to be one of the most significant year over year increases in sales and revenues in our history.”

Yet Caterpillar shares declined about 1.5 percent

The reason for this could be that the appearance of the sales and revenue figures released this quarter was enhanced by weaker results in previous years, and because the company issued a cautious outlook for the growth of global retail sales to dealers in 2011.

“That is why the stock has retreated from where it was earlier in the session,” said Rob F. McCarthy, an analyst with Robert W. Baird Co.

Another reason could be that the company’s commentary on growth in its engine business seemed slightly more cautious than expected, said Robert Wertheimer, an analyst with Morgan Stanley.

AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, met analysts’ estimates in its third-quarter earnings, which showed revenue rose 2.8 percent, to $31.6 billion. The share price was up 0.2 percent in the afternoon.

Weekly jobless claims fell more than expected, and the Conference Board’s index of economic indicators showed a positive trend, although it confirmed that the economy was sluggish.

The claims presented a mixed picture of the crucial sector of the economy as it struggles to recover. There were 452,000 new claims in the week that ended Oct. 9, which was lower than expected, although there were upward revisions to such claims the previous week, the Labor Department said.

Mr. Greenhaus said it was a welcome drop but that “meaningful job creation remains elusive.”

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index, an index of 10 indicators that are intended to predict overall economic activity, showed a rise of 0.3 percentin September to 110.4 points, up from a rise of 0.1 percent in August.

“More than a year after the recession officially ended, the economy is slow and has no forward momentum,” said Ken Goldstein, economist at the Conference Board. The index “suggests little change in economic conditions through the holidays or the early months of 2011.”

Wall Street Is Flat in Late Trading