Stocks on Wall Street traded in a narrow range throughout the session, as weak Chinese import data weighed on materials and industrials, and investors looked expectantly to the second-quarter earnings season.Just before the close, the Dow Jones Industrial
Stocks on Wall Street traded in a narrow range throughout the session, as weak Chinese import data weighed on materials and industrials, and investors looked expectantly to the second-quarter earnings season.
Just before the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 4.99 points to 10,203.02. The modest rise follows last week's surge in which the Dow rose 5.3%, its biggest weekly gain in nearly a year.
Industrial components weakened after Chinese imports slipped to a yearly growth rate of 34.1% in June, from 48.3% in May, although China's June exports grew 43.9% from the year-earlier month, beating estimates. United Technologies slid 1.4%, Caterpillar fell 0.9% and DuPont shed 1%.
Alcoa slid 1.3% as investors braced for its earnings release after the market's close. Microsoft gained 1.8% after teaming up and with Japanese technology-service company Fujitsu on cloud computing.
Microsoft also announced agreements with technology giants Dell, Hewlett-Packard and eBay related to its Windows Azure cloud-computing operating system.
The Nasdaq Composite was virtually unchanged at 2196.64 while the S&P 500 index down marginally at 1077.47, weighed by material and industrial stocks, while technology stocks gained after analyst upgrades.
Other markets: Europe, Asia up
European stocks rose for a fifth straight session, led higher by energy shares as talk that BP might sell assets boosted its stock.
BP shares soared 9.4% to their highest close in a month after reports it is in talks with the US oil-and-gas producer Apache about a deal valued at as much as $US10 billion. At the same time, BP said it was close to installing a new cap that could contain all of the oil from its leaking Gulf of Mexico well.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed up 0.4% at 251.18, its fifth consecutive session of gains. The UK's FTSE 100 index rose 0.7% to 5167.02, France's CAC-40 index ended up 0.4% at 3567.66 and Germany's DAX added 0.2% to 6077.19.
Most Asian markets advanced, though Japanese shares were a notable exception, unable to hang on to their early gains as investors digested news of an election defeat for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
The Nikkei Stock Average lost 0.4% to 9548.11 in Tokyo, while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.8% to 2490,72 on strong export data.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced 0.4% to 20,467.43, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% 4409.94 and Korea's Kospi added 0.6% 1734.05. India's Sensex moved 0.6% higher to 17,937.20, while Singapore's Straits Times Index inched up 0.2% to 2925.32.
Commodities: Oil, gold down
Crude prices fell ahead of economic data this week and the beginning of corporate-earnings season. Oil has been trading range between $US70 and $US80 a barrel for more than a month.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery was down $US1.08, or 1.4%, at $US75.01 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange was down 92USc at $US74.50 a barrel.
Gold futures fell, continuing their recent pattern of subdued moves as traders look for direction from wider markets.
The most actively traded contract, for August delivery, was down $US11.60 at $US1,198.20 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Dollar up, pound down
The US dollar gained against most of its competitors as investors took a defensive stance ahead of euro-zone debt auctions later this week.
The UK pound declined against the dollar after credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's warned that the country’s debt level could threaten its triple-A standing.
The pound was at $US1.5014 from $US1.5066 in New York trade. The euro was at $US1.2573 from $US1.2640 late on Friday.
The dollar was at ¥88.54 from ¥88.65, while the euro was at ¥111.32 from ¥112.07.
