Biotechs offset energy on Wall Street

US stocks were little-changed on Monday as a drop in oil prices that weighed on the energy sector was offset with a strong showing by biotech stocks. Oil prices settled down more than 3%, after touching two-month highs last week, on worries about burgeoning Chinese fuel exports, more Iraqi and Nigerian crude shipments and a rising US oil rig count.

US STOCKS were little-changed on Monday as a drop in oil prices that weighed on the energy sector was offset with a strong showing by biotech stocks.

Oil prices settled down more than 3%, after touching twomonth highs last week, on worries about burgeoning Chinese fuel exports, more Iraqi and Nigerian crude shipments and a rising US oil rig count.

The S& P energy index lost 0.9%, its worst performance in two weeks, and was the worstperforming of the 10 major S&P groups.

As earnings season draws to a close, investor focus will shift to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday at the annual central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to assess the odds of an interest rate hike in coming months.

“It’s oil and then we’ve got Jackson Hole hanging over us, and there is always some surprise that comes out of Jackson Hole,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

The case for a rate hike was bolstered by Fed Vice-Chairman Stanley Fischer’s comments that the US economy was close to hitting the Fed’s job and inflation targets. Traders have priced in an 18% chance of a rate hike for September, up from 12% on Friday. That measure rose to about 50% for December, from 46.2%, according to the CME Group’s fedwatch tool.

Biotech stocks received a boost from Pfizer’s $ 14- billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Medivation. Medivation’s shares jumped nearly 20% as the biggest boost to the Nasdaq, and the Nasdaq biotech index. NBI was up 2%, its best day since July 27.

Of the 479 companies in the S& P 500 that have reported earnings, 71% have topped Wall Street’s expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data through Monday morning. Earnings are currently showing a decline of 2.30% for the quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23.15 points, or 0.12%, to 18,529.42, the S&P 500 lost 1.23 points, or 0.06%, to 2,182.64 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.23 points, or 0.12%, to 5,244.60.

Apple was off 0.8% as the biggest drag on all three major indexes.

Chipmaker Intersil jumped 19.8% to $18.74 after a source told Reuters that Japan’s Renesas was in the final stages of negotiations to acquire the company for about $2.99 billion.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.01-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.19-to-1 ratio favored advancers. —