U.S. stocks were cautiously higher Tuesday, a year after the benchmark indices recorded major lows on March 9 in 2009.

"This past year was one of the most powerful rallies in history, and with the recent gains we've had, it makes sense that we're going to move sideways for a while," Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York told Reuters Thomson.

Transport related stocks, led by United Arlines, advanced while financial shares lagged.

At the close of trading Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrials were up 11.86 points or 0.11% at 10,564.38.

The Nasdaq Composite was ahead 8.47 points or 0.36% at 2,340.68.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was up 1.95 points or 0.17% at 1,140.45.

The U.S. dollar was generally softer, although it lost ground against the commodity currencies.

Around the New York close Thursday the Australian dollar advanced to .9156. The Canadian dolar edged up to 1.0264.

The euro wilted to 1.3608, while the British pound tumbled to 1.5008.

The Swiss franc was notionally weaker at 1.0742, while the Japanese yen was little changed at 90.03.