NEW YORK (AP) - Investors rejoiced over Europe last week. On Monday, they got back to worrying about the United States.
Stocks struggled to stay out of the red in quiet holiday-week trading after the government said American manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in almost three years.
The Dow Jones industrial average opened higher but fell after the manufacturing report came out at 10 a.m. EDT and never recovered. It finished down 8.70 points at 12,871.39.
The Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite index both finished slightly higher after hopping between small gains and losses. The S&P rose 3.35 to 1,365.51. The Nasdaq rose 16.18 to 2,951.23.
Chemical company DuPont fell the most in the Dow. It lost $1.14, or 2.3 percent, to $49.43. Caterpillar, General Electric, Alcoa, Exxon Mobil, Boeing and other companies tied to manufacturing were also down.
It was a tepid performance compared with Europe's. Stock indexes in France, Britain and Germany rose more than 1 percent, still riding the euphoria from Friday's announcement that European leaders will make it easier for banks to get bailout loans. That news pushed the Dow up 227 points Friday.
The government did report a sliver of good news about the U.S. economy Monday, though investors seemed underwhelmed: Construction spending rose in May by 0.9 percent, the most in five months.