Stocks closed broadly lower after a day of choppy trading on Wall Street Monday as investors prepared for a busy week of corporate earnings and inflation updates. The major indexes made early gains, but slowly fizzled as the day progressed, the AP reports. The S&P 500 fell 30.15 points, or 0.7%, to 4,361.19. The benchmark index gained as much as 0.6% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 250.19 points, or 0.7%, to 34,496.06 and the Nasdaq shed 93.34 points, or 0.6%, to 14,486.20.
Technology and communications stocks had some of the biggest losses. Facebook fell 1.4% and Intuit fell 1.1%. Energy companies held up better than the rest of the market as the price of crude oil rose 1.5% to just over $80 a barrel. Southwest Airlines fell 4.2% after dealing with hundreds of flight cancellations over the weekend. Toymaker Hasbro fell 1.6% after announcing that CEO Brian D. Goldner is taking a medical leave of absence.
Investors are looking ahead to the beginning of company earnings this week. Analysts have said that the latest round of corporate results could help give the market more direction after several choppy weeks. Stocks have been swaying between between gains and losses as investors try to better gauge the direction of the economic recovery through the rest of the year. Banks will be among the first big companies to report their latest financial results and give investors more insight into how companies are faring amid concerns over the lingering pandemic and rising inflation (More stock market stories.)
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