Wall Street was mixed after a report showed a surprise contraction for manufacturing in the New York area in August.
Separate reports showed that industrial production increased more than expected in July, while home-builder sentiment in August climbed to the highest level in more than five years.
And the consumer price index was steady in July for a second month, defying expectations for an increase - and leaving open the door for the US central bank to provide fresh stimulus to the economy.
In late afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.05 per cent. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index eked out a 0.04 per cent gain and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.27 per cent.
"The outlook is not particularly favourable," Millan Mulraine, a senior US strategist at TD Securities in New York, told Bloomberg News. "Slowing global growth momentum will certainly eat into the global demand for US exports and manufacturing in particular."