Wall Street ends flat amid thin trades

US stocks closed little changed in low volume on Monday as gains in utilities and consumer stocks offset declines in healthcare, with earnings news filtering out winners and losers across the board. BlackRock shares fell 3.1% to $424.63 after the world’s biggest asset manager’s quarterly profit came in below expectations. After the closing bell, Netflix shares jumped 8.5% to $175.45 following better than expected subscriber growth.

NEW YORK — US stocks closed little changed in low volume on Monday as gains in utilities and consumer stocks offset declines in health care, with earnings news filtering out winners and losers across the board.

BlackRock shares fell 3.10% to $424.63 after the world’s biggest asset manager’s quarterly profit came in below expectations.

After the closing bell, Netflix shares jumped 8.50% to $175.45 following better than expected subscriber growth.

Procter & Gamble rose 0.50% to $87.55 as investor Nelson Peltz actively seeks a seat on Procter & Gamble’s board.

Health stocks on the S& P 500 slipped, partly weighed down by a delay in the US Senate’s consideration of health care legislation after news over the weekend that Arizona Republican Senator John McCain would remain in his home state next week following a medical procedure.

“I think we’ve got to see some dry ink on the health care bill before you can make broad bets on that sector,” said Erick Ormsby, CEO of Alcosta Capital Management in San Ramon, California.

“A bulk of funds will come in as we see clarity on [the] health care bill.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.02 points, or 0.04%, to 21,629.72; the S&P 500 lost 0.13 points, or 0.01%, to 2,459.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.97 points, or 0.03%, to 6,314.43.

The S& P health sector fell 0.30% while utilities gained 0.40% and the consumer discretionary sector rose 0.26%.

Amazon led discretionary sector gains with a 0.80% increase to $1,010.04. Meal-kit company Blue Apron Holdings fell 10.50% to $6.59 after an Amazon unit filed a trademark for a competing mealkit service earlier this month.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1.28-to-1; on Nasdaq, a 1.09-to-1 ratio favored advancers. About 5.16 billion shares changed hands on US exchanges, compared with the 6.51 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions. —