By the Associated Press
U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Monday, snapping a four-day losing streak for the Dow Jones industrial average on a day of largely listless trading.
Utilities led the gainers as falling bond yields made high-dividend companies more attractive to income-seeking investors. Phone companies and real estate investment trusts, which also tend to offer high yields, notched gains. Financial stocks also did well. Technology companies declined the most, giving up gains from an early rally.
"It's a pretty low volatility day and a continuation of the trend we saw last week, which is equity markets largely treading water," said Bill Northey, investment officer at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 0.77 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,439.07. The Dow gained 14.79 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,409.55. The Nasdaq composite slid 18.10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,247.15. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks picked up 1.86 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,416.64.
The major stock indexes were headed slightly higher in early trading, but spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses.
Early on, investors got some discouraging news on the economy from the Commerce Department, which reported orders for durable goods, which are items meant to last at least three years, slid 1.1 percent in May. That was the second straight decline and a bigger drop than analysts were expecting.
That helped pull down U.S. bond yields, which have already been weighed down by increased demand from overseas bond investors seeking better yields and persistently low inflation in the U.S. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was down to 2.12 percent earlier Monday before bouncing back to 2.14 percent by late afternoon.
The trend made high-dividend stocks favorite buys for many investors seeking income, including utilities such as FirstEnergy and Exelon.