By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch , Ryan Vlastelica

Walt Disney to buy 21st Century Fox in $52.4 billion deal

U.S. stock-market indexes, which were trading near record levels earlier, pared gains and struggled to stay in positive territory on Thursday, with the selling pressure coming from health care and materials sectors.

Need to know:'80s cheer for the end of year: Stocks that remind bulls of the Reagan-Volcker era (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/80s-cheer-for-end-of-year-stocks-that-remind-bulls-of-the-reagan-volcker-era-2017-12-14)

What are indexes doing?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average switched between small gains and losses, recently trading flat at 24,587. Earlier, the blue-chip index, hit an intraday all-time high at 24,672.48, after rising for five straight sessions and closing at a record for the past four (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dows-4-day-win-streak-in-jeopardy-with-all-eyes-on-fed-and-alabama-election-result-2017-12-13).

The S&P 500 was off by 3 points to 2,659, a decline of 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up down 4 points to 6,871. Both were within 1 percentage point of their own records.

What's driving the markets?

Details of the Republican tax deal (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-whats-in-the-republican-tax-deal-2017-12-13) have started to trickle out, with the big elements including a corporate tax rate of 21% and top individual rate of 27%. The corporate rate is currently 35%.

Passage uncertainty persisted, however, with Sen. Marco Rubio reportedly saying he was a 'no" vote on the current version (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rubio-a-no-on-tax-bill-without-larger-expansion-of-child-tax-credit-report-2017-12-14), without a larger expansion of the child tax credit.

Earlier support from better-than-expected economic data seemed to evaporate, however. Sales at U.S. retailers climbed 0.8% in November (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-retail-sales-jump-08-in-november-as-holiday-season-gets-to-good-start-2017-12-14), the start of the holiday shopping season. The increase was twice as large as the MarketWatch forecast. Separately, jobless claims fell 11,000 in the latest week, while U.S. import prices rose 0.7% in November.

The flash U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 55 from 53.9 in November (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/flash-manufacturing-pmi-at-11-month-high-while-services-pmi-slips-to-15-month-low-2017-12-14), while the flash U.S. services activity index fell to 52.4 from 54.5. Any reading above 50 indicates improving conditions.

Business inventories fell 0.1% in October.

(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-whats-in-the-republican-tax-deal-2017-12-13)The European Central Bank held its leading interest rate at a record low (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ecb-leaves-rates-at-record-low-reiterates-dovish-guidance-2017-12-14) and left in place largely dovish guidance on policy moving forward. Separately, the Bank of England held key interest rates at 0.5%, as expected, in a 9-0 vote. The central bank raised rates for the first time in a decade in November.

The monetary policy updates come a day after the Federal Reserve lifted a key short-term U.S. interest rate to a range of 1.25% to 1.5%, but in a sign of caution, stuck to its earlier forecast for just three 1/4-point rate increases in 2018. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-raises-interest-rates-and-makes-few-changes-to-outlook-ahead-of-transition-to-powell-2017-12-13)

What are strategists saying?

"There's so much money floating around the system, and so long as central banks keep that liquidity in place, which they're doing, I think the market will have room to run higher," said Luis Maizel, senior managing director at LM Capital Group, who speculated there was an additional upside of 8%-10% in stocks.

"Retail sales were strong, and jobless claims were lower than expected, but we're not seeing good jobs get created, and there's no pressure on wages going up."

Read: 3 things to watch for at Thursday's ECB meeting (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/3-things-to-watch-for-at-thursdays-ecb-meeting-2017-12-13)

Which stocks are in focus?

Shares of 21st Century Fox Inc.(FOX) rose 3.5% after Walt Disney Co.(DIS) announced it would buy the media company in a deal valued at $52.4 billion (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-to-buy-21st-century-fox-in-a-deal-valued-at-524-billion-2017-12-14). Shares of Disney rose 1.2%, supporting the Dow.

Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.(TEVA) surged 14% after announcing additional restructuring measures (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/teva-shares-jump-4-premarket-as-company-says-it-will-cut-14000-jobs-in-restructuring-2017-12-14), including the loss of 14,000 jobs in the next two years, and the immediate suspension of dividends and cancellation of 2017 bonuses.

Shares of Sanderson Farms Inc.(SAFM) dropped 10% after the poultry producer posted weaker-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter profit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sanderson-farms-shares-slump-premarket-after-profit-miss-2017-12-14).

Valeant Pharmaceuticals(VRX.T) fell 6.2% after J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock to underweight from neutral.

Tech shares were among the biggest boosters to the day's performance. Alphabet Inc.(GOOGL), the parent company of Google, rose 1.4%, while Facebook Inc.(FB) was up 1%.

(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sanderson-farms-shares-slump-premarket-after-profit-miss-2017-12-14)What are other markets doing?

Climbing higher on Thursday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-climbs-after-fed-sticks-to-3-rate-hikes-next-year-2017-12-14), gold rose 0.7%.

The ICE U.S. Dollar Index pared earlier gains and was flat at 93.467.

Crude-oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-rise-on-signs-of-falling-us-inventories-2017-12-13) ticked higher, rising 0.6%. In its closely watched monthly oil report, the International Energy Agency said U.S. shale producers pushed global oil supply to its highest level in a year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-shale-ramps-up-helps-drive-oil-supply-to-highest-in-a-year-says-iea-2017-12-14).

Bitcoin futures were at 16,980 in their fourth full day of trading (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bitcoin-futures-rev-up-again-push-past-17500-2017-12-14), while the spot price for the most active digital currency rose to $16,590.96.

Stocks in Europe were lower (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-sag-with-ecbs-final-policy-meeting-of-the-year-on-deck-2017-12-14), while Asian markets finished mostly in the red (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-stock-markets-under-pressure-as-financials-drop-on-fed-hike-2017-12-14) as financials fell on news of the Fed interest-rate hike.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 14, 2017 14:19 ET (19:19 GMT)