NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Monday morning as energy prices retreat from a rally late last week. Mining and materials stocks are slumping, and paper and packing companies alse lost ground. McDonald’s rose after reporting a big jump in sales.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average declined 68 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,025. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 10 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,897. The Nasdaq composite gave up 12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,579.
RALLY FADES: Major indexes climbed Thursday and Friday, giving the market its first weekly gain in a month. January has been one of the worst months for the Dow and the S&P 500 in history. The Nasdaq composite is down almost 11 percent this month.
ENERGY PRICES DIP: The price of benchmark U.S. crude fell 85 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $31.37 a barrel in New York, and Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, lost 75 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $31.41 a barrel in London. U.S. oil jumped 9 percent Friday after setting 12-year lows earlier in the week. Exxon Mobil lost 67 cents, or 1 percent, to $75.94. The price of heating oil and natural gas both fell about 2 percent.
PAPER CUTS: Paper and packaging companies stumbled on concerns about product prices. That led to downgrades from several investment firms. WestRock gave up $4.30, or 11.4 percent, to $33.44 and International Paper fell $2.06, or 5.6 percent, to $34.40.
LET’S MAKE A DEAL: Tyco International and Johnson Controls will combine in a $3.9 billion deal. Tyco makes fire suppression systems and Johnson Controls makes ventilation systems, auto seating and car batteries. Both stocks have struggled as investors worried about their growth.
Tyco jumped $1.76, or 5.8 percent, to $32.35 and Johnson Controls lost $1.06, or 3 percent, to $34.54. Companies spent $5 trillion on acquisitions and other deals last year, a record.
LOVIN’ IT: McDonald’s rose after the restaurant chain said its U.S. sales grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, its best result in more than three years. The company said its all-day breakfast menu and the warm weather helped its sales. Overall, sales rose 5 percent. The stock rose $2.61, or 2.2 percent, to $121.01.
BUSINESS SURVEY: Business economists became more pessimistic about profits and sales than they were last fall and expect slower economic growth, according to a survey by the National Association of Business Economists. However, most of the survey participants said their companies plan to raise wages in the first quarter. That’s the largest proportion in more than a year.
TWEETSTORM: Twitter continued to slide after the company said four executives, including its head of engineering, will leave the company. The stock lost 80 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $17.04. Twitter is trading at an all-time low and has lost 57 percent in the last year.
OVERSEAS: Stocks rose in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.8 percent. Germany’s DAX lost 0.5 percent, France’s CAC 40 slid 0.8 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.7 percent.
BONDS, CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.03 percent from 2.06 percent. The euro rose to $1.0839 from $1.0791 late Friday. The dollar fell to 118.39 from 118.78 yen.
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Marley Jay can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/marley-jay
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