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Traders worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.

A disappointing round of economic data weighed on U.S. stocks Tuesday, but major indexes still posted the largest January gains in 15 years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 20.81 points, or 0.2%, to 12632.91, punctuating month's end with its first four-session losing streak since November.

Nonetheless, the Dow's 3.4% rise in January was the biggest since 1997, and the Dow's 415 point gain in January was the most on record.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index edged lower by 0.6 point, or 0.1% to 1312.41, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.9 points, or 0.1%, to 2813.84. The S&P 500's 4.4% rise was its biggest in January since 1997. As with the Dow, the S&P 500's 55-point gain in January was the biggest on record.

"Absent from trading patterns were days when screens were either all red or all green," said Teddy Weisberg, trader at Seaport Securities in New York. "January was one of the best months we've had in a long, long time."

The Dow climbed as much as 66 points early Tuesday before a reading on U.S. consumer confidence in January sent stocks lower. The abrupt swing into negative territory came after the Conference Board's index of consumer confidence retreated to 61.1 this month—well shy of the 68.0 reading expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. A reading that showed slower economic growth in the Chicago area last month didn't help.