A report on the Consumer Price Index in February eased a hawkish view on US interest rates that had sprung up in recent months on improving US economic data, leading the dollar to drop versus the euro and helping fuel the retreat in bonds.

US stocks traded near break-even, but the tendency was higher, not lower. The benchmark Standard & Poor's Index rose slightly to stay above the psychologically important level of 1,400, a level last reached almost four years ago.

After the strong run-up in prices this year, investors now want to see further gains in corporate earnings to pushed stocks higher, said Rick Meckler, president of hedge fund LibertyView Capital Management LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.

"It seems like we're at a key point in time in terms of show-me some results, instead of the anecdotal signs everybody's feeling better," Meckler said. "We're getting more to an equilibrium to sustain the incredible growth of the first quarter."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.70 points, or 0.01 percent, at 13,254.46. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.96 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,404.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.08 points, or 0.04 percent, at 3,057.45.

Global stocks advanced, helped by an unexpected jump in European exports in January and the US CPI data.

The US CPI increased 0.4 percent after a 0.2 percent advance in January, with gasoline accounting for more than 80 percent of the rise, the Labor Department said.

In Europe, a surge in German exports helped the euro zone to cut its trade deficit by more than half to 7.6 billion euro in January from a year earlier, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat reported.

The MSCI world equity index rose 0.4 percent, while the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rose 0.4 percent to a preliminary close of 1,106.73.

The euro climbed against the dollar after the CPI data was seen as reducing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would tighten monetary policy sooner than the US central bank has indicated, which is in 2014.

The euro rose 0.7 percent at $1.3167, while the US dollar index was down 0.4 percent at 79.799.

The 30-year US Treasury bond extended its loss to one point as global equity market strength dimmed the allure of safe-haven US government debt.

The 30-year bond fell as much as a point, lifting its yield to 3.46 percent before trimming losses to be down 8/32 at a yield of 3.42 percent. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was down 10/32 in price to yield 2.31 percent.

Brent crude rebounded above $124 a barrel as attention returned to restricted Iranian exports and global outages that are trimming spare capacity, following a steep drop in prices the previous day.

Brent oil rose $1.90 to $124.50 a barrel. US light sweet crude oil rose 80 cents to $105.91 a barrel.

Gold fell, in its largest weekly decline in three months, after top consumer India said it would double import duties on bullion and upbeat US data this week fed optimism over the global economy, boosting risk appetite.

Spot gold prices fell $4.93 to $1,652.80 per ounce.