Stocks lower, except for tech, ahead of busy earnings week

Stocks mostly fell on Monday, and broad-market indexes inched modestly backward at the start of a busy week of corporate earnings reports and a meeting of the Federal Reserve.

Technology stocks, though, added to their big gains for the year and helped push the Nasdaq composite to another record.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 0.11 percent, to end at 2,469.91 after nine of the 11 sectors that make up the index logged losses. It marks the first three-day losing streak for the index in a month, though it’s still within a fraction of a percent of its record.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 66.90 points to 21,513.17. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.36 percent to 6,410.81.

The Nasdaq is up 19.1 percent this year, nearly double the rise for broader-market indexes, as investors have massed into technology stocks in their search for strong growth as the global economy remains sluggish.

Amazon.com and several other big-name tech companies are set to release their second-quarter results in coming days, part of a busy week where more than a third of S&P 500 companies are due to report.

Expectations are high: Analysts forecast tech stocks in the S&P 500 will report 16 percent growth in earnings per share, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. — AP