U.S. stocks were mostly flat in low volume on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve lifted its growth estimates for 2010, offsetting data that showed the economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the third quarter.

Revised government data showed gross domestic product expanded for the first quarter in five, but the increase was just below expectations, and investors scrambled to justify additional stock gains after a 22 percent rise in the S&P 500 so far this year.

The downbeat news was offset partially after the Fed revised upward its growth expectation for 2010, while minutes of the last FOMC meeting showed officials are increasingly confident about a durable recovery for the U.S. economy.

You're getting the cross-current of weak revisions to third-quarter data matrixed against the Fed increasing the growth estimates for the economy for the next year, said Jim Awad, managing director at Zephyr Management in New York.

But the action in the market is moderate going into the holiday weekend and I wouldn't read too much into it.

The U.S. stock market will be closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day. And on Friday, it will be open for only half a day due to the holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 13.53 points, or 0.13 percent, to 10,437.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dipped 0.18 of a point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,106.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dropped 6.69 points, or 0.31 percent, to 2,169.32.

Hewlett-Packard Co fell 1.5 percent to $50.26 a day after the blue-chip computer and printer maker reported a quarterly profit that matched its preliminary results, but said the economy remained challenging.

HP also said it saw growth in its share of U.S. enterprise PCs, which is rival Dell Corp's key market. Dell's stock fell 3.2 percent to $14.32 and ranked as a top drag on the Nasdaq.

Financial stocks showed weakness throughout the session, with JPMorgan Chase & Co , down 2 percent at $42.43, leading the major decliners in the Dow industrials. The KBW bank index <.BKX> fell 0.7 percent.

Zephyr Management's Awad said there is concern about banks' capital after news that the Fed asked lenders that were part of its stress tests to submit plans to repay government money.

U.S. home prices rose in September, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, but the increase was less robust than forecast. Home prices for that month were unchanged, according to a separate report from the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index <.DJUSHB> fell 1.7 percent.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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