Stocks end mixed on weak manufacturing data
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The market soared over 2% in Manhattan in response to the eurozone bail out package. (June 29, 2012) Credit: Getty Images
Investors rejoiced over Europe last week. Monday they got back to worrying about the United States.
Stocks struggled to stay out of the red in quiet holiday-week trading after a trade group said American manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in almost three years.
The Dow Jones industrial average, higher in early trading, fell after the manufacturing report came out and never recovered. It finished down 8.70 points at 12,871.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.25 percent to 1,365.51. The Nasdaq composite index was up 0.55 percent to 2,951.23.
Chemical company DuPont fell the most in the Dow after Jeffries lowered its rating on the company to "hold." It lost $1.14, or 2.25 percent, to $49.43.
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 277 points on 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. -- AP
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