Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, August 22, 2012.BRENDAN MCDERMID/Reuters
Stocks fell on Monday, following the best weekly performance of the year for the S&P 500 and ending a lengthy winning streak for major indexes.
The S&P 500 closed at 1406.29, down 2.86 points or 0.2 per cent – marking its first decline in six sessions. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,967.37, down 42.31 points or 0.3 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 12,185.05, down 28.19 points or 0.2 per cent – ending a six-day winning streak.
Stocks have been volatile in recent weeks as investors digest the third-quarter earnings season, the looming U.S. fiscal cliff and uncertainty about whether Greece can get its next round of financial aid from the euro zone. The S&P 500 had fallen as much as 8 per cent from mid-September, but then rallied 3.6 per cent last week for its biggest weekly gain of 2012.
Key commodities showed only slight declines. Crude oil fell to $87.74 (U.S.) a barrel, down 54 cents. Gold fell to $1,749.60 an ounce, down $1.80.
Among Canadian commodity producers, Barrick Gold Corp. fell 0.6 per cent and Suncor Energy Inc. fell 0.4 per cent.
In the U.S., Coca-Cola Co. fell 1.5 per cent and AT&T Inc. fell 1.1 per cent.
However, technology stocks showed some strength: Hewlett-Packard Co. rose 2.4 per cent, Cisco Systems Inc. rose 1.1 per cent and Intel Corp. fell 0.8 per cent.
In Canada, Research In Motion Ltd. – on a tear in recent sessions – rose 2.5 per cent. CIBC World Markets analyst Todd Coupland raised his recommendation on the stock to "sector outperformer - speculative" and boosted his target price to $17 from $8.
David Berman