Stocks Finish Mixed as Old Man Winter Rages
NEW YORK (
) - Stocks ended Monday's sparse trading session close to the flatline as
China's decision to raise interest rates heightened global growth concerns.
Financial and technology stocks strengthened late in the day, however, helping to pare earlier losses. All three major U.S. equity indices traded in tight ranges.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
closed down by 19 points, or 0.2%, at 11,555. The
S&P 500
finished nearly a point higher at 1258, and the
Nasdaq Composite
edged roughly a point ahead at 2667.
Light trading was already expected following the long Christmas holiday weekend, but a blizzard that pelted the East Coast over the weekend also contributed to the slow session. Heavy snowfall forced the cancellation of thousands of flights during the busy holiday travel weekend and New York-area airports were closed. 467 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, while 1.1 billion traded on the Nasdaq. Just over half of stocks ended in positive territory while 44% of stocks declined.
Keeping a cap on stocks Monday was China's decision on Saturday to
raise interest rates for the second time in little more than two months as the government increased efforts to combat inflation.
The news weighed most heavily on basic material stocks but
Procter & Gamble
(PG) - Get Report
,
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
and
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
were the Dow's biggest laggards.
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Report
topped the Dow as shares gained 2.4% to $20.16 following a report in
Barron's
that said shares may rise as the company sees stronger demand for equipment and as the company begins paying dividends.
Financials and conglomerates showed the strongest gains during Monday's session.
American International Group
(AIG) - Get Report
rose 9.3% to $59.38 on news that the insurance company entered into
two, $1.5 billion credit facilities less than two weeks after the insurer laid out plans to exit a government bailout. The facilities were arranged by 36 banks including
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
and
JPMorgan
(JPM) - Get Report
.
Bank of America, JPMorgan and
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
were also among the Dow's top gainers.
Shares of
Sterling Financial
(STSA) - Get Report
finished 13.3% higher at $19.65 after a FBR Capital Markets analyst
initiated the stock at a buy rating, citing Sterling's capital raise in August and tough credit management actions that should stabilize credit losses.
There were no economic reports scheduled for Monday's session.
|
Shares of
DryShips
(DRYS) - Get Report
lost 7% to $5.55 following news that it would
buy a dozen oil tankers from a Korean ship company.
Retailers traded lower as the blizzard that dumped as much as two-feet of snow on the U.S. East Coast deterred shoppers on a busy post-Christmas shopping day. The
SPDR S&P Retail ETF
(XRT) - Get Report
finished off by 0.5% at $48.23.
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
upped its first-quarter
global shipment order for iPhones to 20-21 million units, from 19 million, according to a report in
DigiTimes
. Shares gained 0.3% at $324.68.
Shares of
H&R Block
(HRB) - Get Report
shed 7% to $11.80 following news that
HSBC
(HBC)
ended its long-term contract with H&R to provide tax refund anticipation loans and checks. The decision was prompted by a regulatory directive by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Egg producer
Cal-Maine Foods
(CALM) - Get Report
reported a 5.6% drop in second-quarter earnings and missed analysts' profit expectations with adjusted earnings of 63 cents a share. The stock lost 3.6% at $32.61.
In commodity markets, the February crude oil contract settled down by 51 cents to close at $91 a barrel after touching a two-year high on Thursday, the last trading session. The February gold contract added $2.40 to settle at $1,382.90 an ounce.
The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies with the dollar index down by 0.2%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened 17/32, diluting the yield to 3.331%.
.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was closed for a holiday while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.8%. The FTSE in London was also closed while the DAX in Frankfurt closed down by 1.2%.
--Written by Melinda Peer in New York
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.