By Mike Bird 

U.S. stocks were little changed as oil prices wavered following the announcement of a prospective deal between major oil-producing nations to cut production levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20 points, or 0.1%, to 18359 and the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%, weighed down by a second day of declines in biotechnology shares.

Stocks in Europe and Asia rallied after Wednesday's gains in the U.S., when the S&P 500's energy sector had its biggest one-day gain since January.

But oil prices fluctuated Thursday as analysts were cautious about the impact of the deal. U.S. crude oil prices edged up 0.2% to $47.14 a barrel, after rising more than 5% a day earlier.

"We're not actually talking about a very large reduction here, it's more like a freeze at pretty high production levels," said Mike Bell, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "It's very hard for oil to go much above $60 per barrel because U.S. producers pretty much all start to become profitable again."

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said they had proposed cutting their collective output to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels a day, down from August levels of 33.2 million barrels a day. The group, however, deferred the task of completing a plan to make those cuts until November.

Investors were also assessing the latest U.S. economic data.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at a faster pace in the second quarter than previously estimated. However, the latest data showed the expansion decelerated in the first half of the year.

Also, the number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week but remained at a low level consistent with a generally healthy labor market, data from the Labor Department showed.

Fed funds futures, used by investors and traders to place bets on central-bank policy, rose slightly. They showed a 57% probability of an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve by December, according to data from CME Group, up from 53% a day earlier.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that interest-rate increases were on the way but that there was "no fixed timetable."

Utilities shares -- popular this year while rates have been low because they tend to pay steady dividends -- fell 0.6% in the S&P 500 on Thursday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.582%, according to Tradeweb, from 1.567% Wednesday.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against 16 others, rose 0.2%.

Earlier, Asian shares rose following the OPEC news, led by a 1.4% climb for Japan's Nikkei Stock Average. The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6%, led by oil and gas shares and basic resources stocks.

Banks were among the gainers in Europe. Deutsche Bank shares rose 0.8%. The German lender's shares have been watched closely by investors following The Wall Street Journal's report that the bank has been asked to pay $14 billion by U.S. authorities to settle a set of high-profile mortgage-securities probes stemming from the financial crisis. Shares are down roughly 5% so far this week.

Commerzbank bucked the trend, with shares falling 2.2% after the bank announced that it was scrapping its dividends and laying off around 20% of its workforce.

In currency markets, the dollar rose 0.6% against the yen to Yen101.505. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda gave a speech in early European hours, reiterating that the central bank could cut benchmark interest rates or expand asset purchases further.

Write to Mike Bird at Mike.Bird@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 29, 2016 10:50 ET (14:50 GMT)