U.S. Stock Indexes Mixed Ahead of Busy Earnings Week

NEW YORK (AP) —

Stocks mostly fell on Monday, and broad-market indexes inched modestly backward at the start of a busy week of corporate earnings reports and a meeting of the Federal Reserve. Technology stocks, though, added to their big gains for the year and helped push the Nasdaq composite to another record.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 2.63 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,469.91 after nine of the 11 sectors that make up the index logged losses. It marks the first three-day losing streak for the index in a month, though it’s still within a fraction of a percent of its record.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 66.90 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,513.17. The Nasdaq composite rose 23.05 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,410.81.

The Nasdaq is up 19.1 percent this year, nearly double the rise for broader-market indexes as investors have massed into technology stocks in their search for strong growth as the global economy remains sluggish.

Amazon.com and several other big-name tech companies are set to release their second-quarter results in coming days, part of a busy week where more than a third of S&P 500 companies are due to report.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday held its forecast for global economic growth this year steady at 3.5 percent, but that masks some movements underneath. It raised its forecast for economic growth in Europe, Japan and China. But it also cut its outlook for the United States on the assumption that politicians in Washington won’t be as helpful for growth as earlier expected.

The Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee begins a two-day meeting on Tuesday, following its decision last month to raise short-term interest rates for the third time since December.

Monday’s steepest loss in the S&P 500 came from Hasbro, which sank $10.95, or 9.4 percent, to $105.00 despite reporting stronger-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. The stock had already been up nearly 50 percent for the year before the earnings release, and analysts said some investors may have been nervous after Hasbro cited some softness in its Brazil and U.K. markets.

On the opposite end was WebMD Health, which soared $10.91, or 19.8 percent, to $66.10 after a portfolio company of investment-firm KKR said it will buy the health information website for $66.50 per share in cash.

In overseas markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.6 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5 percent, and India’s Sensex added 0.7 percent.

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent, Germany’s DAX fell 0.3 percent and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 1 percent.

In the commodities market, benchmark U.S. crude rose 57 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $46.34 per barrel. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, rose 54 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $48.60 a barrel.

Natural gas fell 7 cents to $2.90 per 1,000 cubic feet. Wholesale gasoline slipped a penny to $1.56 a gallon and heating oil was nearly flat at $1.52 a gallon.

Gold fell 60 cents to settle at $1,254.30 per ounce, silver slipped 1 cent to $16.44 per ounce and copper added a penny to $2.74 per pound.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 2.25 percent from 2.24 percent late Friday, and the two-year yield rose to 1.36 percent from 1.34 percent.

To Read The Full Story

Are you already a subscriber?
Click to log in!