NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks on Tuesday closed the books on Wall Street’s best January in more than a decade, with the indexes mostly slipping after U.S. economic data failed to live up to its billing.

Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 recorded their best percentage jump for the month of January since 1997. The Nasdaq Composite recorded its best January since 2001.

“The market is taking a bit of a pause after having a terrific start to the year,” Art Hogan, equity strategist at Lazard Capital Markets, said of action in recent days.

A January to remember

Down for its fourth straight session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.47% fell 20.81 points, or 0.2%, to 12,632.91 on Tuesday.

The index gained 3.4%, or 415.35 points, for the month, the biggest January point jump on record.

Exxon Mobil XOM, -2.91% shares dropped 2.1%, weighing the most on the Dow average, after the oil giant reported fourth-quarter production below some estimates. Read more on Exxon.

The S&P 500 SPX, -0.48% declined 0.6 point, or 0.1%, to 1,312.41, with energy declining the most and utilities the best performing of its 10 industry sectors.

The index of large-cap U.S. stocks gained 4.4%, or 54.81 points for the month, also its largest point gain on record. Natural resource, financials and tech sectors fared the best for the month.

Wall Street is taking a “cyclical breather, with investors digesting the strong January,” which had gains particularly robust in sectors that tend to fair better in times of economic growth, said Jeff Schwarte, U.S. equities portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors.

“It was the less-than-expected results out of Exxon that caused the energy sector to lag,” on Tuesday, said Schwarte.

Erasing losses, the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.29% rose nearly 2 points, or 0.1%, to 2,813.84, giving it an 8% gain on the month.

“There are those market participants suffering from a bit of vertigo after a strong start to the year, pointing to cracks in the economic data stream,” such as data on Monday that showed personal spending stalled in December and Tuesday’s indicator pointing to a decline in consumer confidence, said Hogan at Lazard Capital Markets

For every two stocks that lost ground roughly three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, with more than 1 billion shares traded. Composite volume topped 4.1 billion.

Trading has been relatively light all month. Consolidated NYSE volume has averaged 3.8 billion, noted Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, almost 1 billion less than the 4.6 billion shares averaged in Jan. 2011.

Gold futures GC2J finished their floor session at $1,740.40 an ounce, with the metal rising 11% for the month. Read more on metals stocks.

Crude futures CL2H fell 30 cents to end at $98.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with oil down 0.4% for the month.Read more on oil futures.

Factors

U.S. stocks had turned lower after a gauge of confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly fell in January. The Conference Board’s sentiment index declined to 61.1 from a revised 64.8 in December. Read more on consumer confidence.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago reported its gauge of business activity declined to 60.2 in January from 62.2 last month.

Another report had residential real estimate prices dropping more than expected in November.

“There was a little bit of a miss for all three,” said Schwarte of the three U.S. economic reports.

Equities around the globe had gained after European Union leaders finalized a treaty at a meeting in Brussels that quickens sanctions on nations running high deficits. Read more on EU leaders.

Europe’s troubles presents more of a psychological than fundamental weight for U.S. investors, said Schwarte, who calculates 8% of the S&P 500’s earnings could be directly attributed to the region.

“This market has a much higher resistance to negative news flows out of Europe this year” than last, offered Lazard’s Hogan.

Addressing the recent focus on Portugal and the recent rise in its bond yields and as a result, its government’s borrowing costs, Hogan said: “Portugal is smaller than Greece. If Italy’s economy was a dinner meal, than Greece and Portugal’s combined would not be enough to leave the tip.”