FINANCIAL MARKETS
Wall Street capped a mostly listless day of trading Monday with an uneven finish for U.S. stock indexes.
Gains by technology and materials stocks were mostly outweighed by losses among real estate companies, banks and other sectors. Macy’s and other big retailers also took hefty losses.
Energy companies rose as the price of crude oil rebounded from an early slide.
Investors were making moves ahead of the next corporate earnings reporting season, which ramps up this week. Technology stocks were a favorite, with traders expecting the sector companies to post solid results, said Anastasia Amoroso, global investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.
“There’s definitely a pivot going on to earnings from some of the trading last week,” Amoroso said, adding that “investors are looking for some of the higher growth-opportunities and tech definitely stands out.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.25 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,427.43. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 5.82 points, or 0.03 percent, to 21,408.52. The Nasdaq composite rose 23.31 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,176.39. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks lost 7.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,408.47.
About as many stocks rose as fell on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.37 percent from 2.39 percent late Friday.
Trading also got off to a mixed start Monday coming off a broad pickup in major markets in Europe and Asia.
Investors appeared to mostly focus on the coming start of the second-quarter earnings season. The market expects earnings per share growth of about 7 percent from companies in the S&P 500.
Traders also were looking ahead to potential news out of the Federal Reserve later this week. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is due to address Congress on Wednesday and Thursday.
“We’re going through a transition phase where interest rates and Fed policy were very friendly for quite some time and that was the most important support for the markets,” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird. “Now we’re moving more toward the revival of the global economy, including the U.S., and what that might mean for earnings prospects going forward, and the markets are now dwelling on that potential.”