Stock market today: Dow ekes out third straight record, S&P 500, Nasdaq slide with jobs report on deck

US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, with the Dow notching third straight record close but the other indexes slipping after slower retail sales kicked off a flood of crucial economic data ahead of the closely watched monthly jobs report. The blue chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose roughly 0.1%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost about 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.6% as Big Tech titans Nvidia (NVDA) and Alphabet (GOOG) lost ground. December retail sales remained "virtually unchang ...