The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
U.S. stock indexes close mostly higher
Stock indexes closed mostly higher, snapping a 4-day losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average.
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 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.
The major stock indexes were headed slightly higher in early trading, but spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses.
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.
FirstEnergy climbed $1.18, or 4.1 percent, to $30.09, while Exelon gained 71 cents, or 1.9 percent to $37.21.
Several real estate investment trusts also climbed.
Kimco Realty rose 48 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $18.47. CBRE Group picked up $1.13, or 3.2 percent, to $36.48.
Store Capital jumped 11.3 percent on news that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is buying a 9.8 percent stake in the real estate investment trust. The stock gained $2.34 to $23.11.
Traders also bid up shares in companies undergoing executive suite changes.
Pandora Media rose 2.2 percent following reports that the streaming music service’s founder and CEO Tim Westergren is stepping down. The stock picked up 18 cents to $8.46.
Supervalu gained 3.1 percent after the grocery store operator said Bruce Besanko would step down as chief financial officer. The stock climbed 9 cents to $3.03.
Technology sector companies were down the most, reversing course after an early rally. Qorvo slid $3.53, or 5.1 percent, to $66.41. Skyworks Solutions fell $3.04, or 2.9 percent, to $101.32.