Wall Street capped a day of mostly listless trading with a mixed finish Monday as gains in industrial companies, banks and energy stocks outweighed losses elsewhere.
Small-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market as investors shifted focus away from the tail end of a relatively strong corporate earnings season and looked ahead to trade talks between the U.S. and China later this week.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is leading a delegation set to meet with Chinese officials on Thursday and Friday. The talks are aimed at resolving a trade war that threatens to stunt global economic growth, in part by raising prices on goods for consumers and companies. The situation could get worse when a truce on tariff increases expires in early March.
"The problem is, if this trade issue goes on long enough, it will metastasize itself to our economy, "said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 53.22 points, or 0.2 percent, to 25,053.11. The S&P 500 index rose 1.92 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,709.80. The Nasdaq composite added 9.71 points, or 0.1 percent, to 7,307.90. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gained 12.59 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,518.98. European markets finished higher.
U.S. indexes spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses on a light day of company earnings news.
Companies have mostly reported better-than-expected earnings for the last three months of last year. Still, concerns have been building about whether profits can keep growing this year, especially considering companies' strong gains in 2018 after a sweeping corporate tax cut.
So far, 66.4 percent of companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings, with 69 percent of those beating analysts' forecasts. Earnings growth has been 14.5 percent for the quarter. But some companies have tempered their outlooks, and analysts currently expect a 2 percent contraction in the first quarter.
Signs that the global economy is slowing have also added to the market's worries about earnings in 2019.
Economists' fears of a global slowdown were given additional fuel from a report Monday showing Britain's economy had its slowest economic growth since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Both Europe and China are contending with slower growth.
Traders also were keeping an eye on the negotiations in Washington aimed at averting another federal government shutdown.
Democrats and the GOP remained separated Monday over how much to spend on President Donald Trump's promised border wall. A midnight Friday deadline is looming to prevent a second partial shutdown.
But even if the government shuts down again, it's not likely to have a major effect on the stock market, Stovall said.
"While shutdown is certainly a possibility, it's more of an annoyance," he said, noting that the market gained more than 10 percent during the previous shutdown.
A surge in sales at Tim Hortons helped lift quarterly earnings for parent company Restaurant Brands. The company, which also operates Burger King, posted quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's forecasts. The stock added 1.6 percent.
Tesla got a boost from Canaccord analysts, who upgraded the stock from "Hold" to "Buy." The analysts noted that results for the previous two quarters and the electric carmaker's outlook have removed "significant concerns" about the production and profitability of the Model 3, the company's car designed for the mass market. Tesla shares gained 2.3 percent Monday.
Business on 02/12/2019