U.S. stock indexes close mostly higher; Arconic drops
U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Monday, snapping a fourday 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 income-seeking 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.
“It’s a pretty low volatility day and a continuation of the trend we saw last week, which is equity markets largely treading water,” said Bill Northey, chief investment officer at the private client group at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 0.77 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,439.07. The Dow gained 14.79 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,409.55. The Nasdaq composite slid 18.10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,247.15.
The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks picked up 1.86 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,416.64.
Arconic was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500 index. The stock slumped 6 percent after a published report asserted that the company knowingly supplied flammable panels for London’s Grenfell Tower, where a fire June 14 left 79 people dead or missing. Arconic slid $1.53 to $24.01.
Early on, investors got some discouraging news on the economy from the Commerce Department, which reported that orders for durable goods, which are items meant to last at least three years, slid 1.1 percent in May. That was the second straight decline and a bigger drop than analysts were expecting.
That helped pull down U.S. bond yields, which have already been weighed down by increased demand from overseas bond investors seeking better yields and persistently low inflation in the U.S. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was down to 2.12 percent earlier Monday before bouncing back to 2.14 percent by late afternoon.
The trend made high-dividend stocks favorite buys for many investors seeking income, including utilities such as FirstEnergy and Exelon.
First Energy climbed $1.18, or 4.1 percent, to $30.09, while Exelon gained 71 cents, or 1.9 percentto $37.21.
Crude oil prices recovered after wavering in early trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 37 cents, or 0.9 percent, to settle at $43.38 a barrel in New York. Brent, the international standard, gained 29 cents, or 0.6 percent, to close at $45.83 a barrel in London. Oil prices last week hit their lowest point since August and about 15 percent below where they were a year ago on expectations supplies exceed demand.