Stocks ended the week’s first day of trading with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 closing slightly lower, as markets adjusted from last week’s relative quiet to the current week which will offer a variety of data points that could move the markets around.
The S&P 500 closed the day 0.12 percent lower at 1,689.47 points, while the Dow finished off just below the flat line at a loss of 0.04 percent to 15,419.68, and the NASDAQ ended the day up 0.27percent to 3,669.95.
The week will see the release of reports touching on a variety of aspects of US economic health, with the Commerce Department’s July retail sales report out Tuesday, the Labor Department’s Producer Price Index for July on Wednesday, and July housing starts figures on Friday. Thursday will be the heaviest data day, however, with the previous week’s initial jobless claim figures, followed by July’s consumer price index and Industrial production numbers, and a manufacturing survey from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.
The Dow struggled under the weight of poor performances from Walt Disney Co. (DIS) , defense contractor Boeing (BA) , and Exxon Mobil (XOM) , the world’s largest major oil and gas company.
The S&P 500 was held up mostly by financial stocks, with losses on heavy trading going to Bank of America (BAC) , Citigroup (C) , and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) . Food wholesaler Sysco Corp. (SYY) was down nearly 6 percent by closing after its quarterly earnings report showed the company coming up short on the bottom line.
Tech stocks lifted the NASDAQ, with computer giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) up nearly 3 percent to $467.36, followed by Cisco Systems (CSCO) up over 1 percent, and Yahoo! (YHOO) up nearly 2.5 percent.
Former cell-phone leader BlackBerry Limited (BBRY) watched shares soar over ten percent to $10.78 as the company announced that it was considering options for the future, including finding a buyer.
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