Dow losing streak ends; oil climbs
U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Monday, snapping a four-day losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average on a day of largely listless trading.
Utilities led the gainers as falling bond yields made high-dividend companies more attractive to incomeseeking investors. Phone companies and real estate investment trusts, which also tend to offer high yields, notched gains. Financial stocks also did well. Technology companies declined the most, giving up gains from an early rally.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 0.77 points, or 0.03%, to 2,439.07. The Dow gained 14.79 points, or 0.1%, to 21,409.55. The Nasdaq composite slid 18.10 points, or 0.3%, to 6,247.15. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks rose 1.86 points, or 0.1%, to 1,416.64.
Early on, investors got some discouraging news from the Commerce Department, which reported that orders for durable goods, which are items meant to last at least three years, slid 1.1% in May.
That helped pull down U.S. bond yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was down to 2.12% earlier Monday before bouncing back to Friday’s level of 2.14% by late afternoon.
Pandora Media rose 2.2% following reports that the streaming music service’s founder and chief executive, Tim Westergren, is stepping down. The stock gained 18 cents to $8.46.
Crude oil prices recovered after wavering in early trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 37 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $43.38 a barrel in New York. Brent, the international standard, gained 29 cents, or 0.6%, to $45.83 a barrel in London. Oil prices last week hit their lowest point since August and about 15% below where they were a year ago on expectations that supplies exceed demand.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $1.44 a gallon. Heating oil also added a penny to $1.38 a gallon. Natural gas gained 10 cents, or 3.3%, to $3.02 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Gold fell $10 to settle at $1,246.40 ounce. Silver slid 8 cents to $16.57 an ounce, and copper was little changed at $2.63 a pound.
The dollar rose to 111.89 yen from 111.26 yen late Friday. The euro weakened to $1.1181 from $1.1199.
Major indexes moved higher in Europe after a strong German economic survey reinforced hopes that the region’s recovery is gaining momentum. Germany’s DAX rose 0.3%, while France’s CAC-40 gained 0.6%. The FTSE 100 in London added 0.3%.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.7%, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.1%. Seoul’s Kospi gained 0.4%. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Taiwan and Bangkok also gained.