Apple, banks weigh on stocks

A listless day of trading on Wall Street ended with major stock indexes closing slightly lower Tuesday, weighed down by losses among some big technology companies.

Apple slid 2.5% amid speculation that the consumer electronics giant might cut its targets for sales of its latest iPhone. Banks also declined, outweighing gains by energy companies and retailers. Oil prices rose.

Trading was light as investors returned from the Christmas holiday.

“It’s a low-volume day after Christmas, with hardly anything going on,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “You have one piece of news that is significant on a major company, Apple. That moved some of the components around.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 2.84 points, or 0.1%, to 2,680.50. The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 7.85 points, or 0.03%, to 24,746.21. The Nasdaq fell 23.71 points, or 0.3%, to 6,936.25. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks ticked up 1.30 points, or 0.1%, to 1,544.23.

Stocks gained ground for five straight weeks heading into this week. They are on pace to finish every month this year with gains, when dividends are included.

The major indexes were slightly lower early on and veered little for the rest of the day. It was the lightest day of trading in about a year.

Technology companies pulled the market down from the get-go, weighed down by chip makers and Apple, among other big names.

Apple declined 2.5% to $170.57 after a Taiwanese newspaper reported that the company may cut iPhone X sales targets amid weak sales.

Chip maker Micron Technology sank 4.2% to $42.25.

Still, tech remains the best-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year with a gain of 37.4%.

Energy companies posted the biggest gains Tuesday as oil prices rose. Range Resources shares climbed 3.2% to $16.99.

Benchmark U.S. crude jumped $1.50, or 2.6%, to settle at $59.97 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, advanced $1.77, or 2.7%, to $67.02 in London.

Big retail stocks and consumer products companies also climbed. Kohl’s jumped 6% to $56.87. Macy’s advanced 4.6% to $26.85.

Traders welcomed some corporate deal news.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals climbed 5.9% to $18 after it agreed to be acquired by drugmaker Mallinckrodt for $839 million, or $18 a share. Sucampo makes a constipation drug called Amitiza, and it had $230 million in total revenue last year. Mallinckrodt shares ticked up 16 cents to $23.48.

In energy futures trading, wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.79 a gallon. Heating oil rose 7 cents to $2.04 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $2.64 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold rose $8.70, or 0.7%, to $1,287.50 an ounce. Silver rose 16 cents to $16.60 an ounce. Copper rose 4 cents to $3.28 a pound.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.47% from Friday’s 2.48%.