Stocks finished little changed on Monday. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

  • The Dow was down 26 points to 15091. The S&P 500 Index gained less than half of a point to close at 1633. The NASDAQ was virtually unchanged at 3438.
  • The recent rally stalled as investors weighed taking profits amid mixed economic reports.
  • Retail sales unexpectedly advanced by 0.1% in April and, excluding autos and gasoline, sales increased the most since December 2012. On the downside, business inventories were unchanged for the second consecutive month in March and sales fell by the most in nine months.
  • Meanwhile in Asia, China’s fixed-asset investment surprisingly decelerated last month while industrial production trailed estimates.
  • Overall, sector action was mixed. Materials and Telecommunication were worst performing groups as Peabody Energy fell 4% to $20.17 and Sprint Nextel lost 2.3% to $7.19. Energy stocks also fell as crude oil declined for a third day after OPEC boosted its output to the highest level in five months. A rally in Health Care helped limit losses led by Biogen’s 4.3% gain to $222.37 and Gilead Sciences’ 2.9% advance to $54.42. Financials also gained ground as JPMorgan rose 1.2% to $49.54 and BlackRock increased 0.8% to $278.92.
  • NYSE Composite volume totaled over 2.8 billion shares. On the NYSE, decliners beat advancers by 3-2 on issues and by 7-5 on volume. The NASDAQ was 6-5 negative on issues, but 7-6 positive on volume.
  • In fixed-income, Treasuries extended last week’s retreat. The 10-year note was down 6/32 to yield 1.92% and the 30-year bond lost over half of a point to yield 3.13%.

For the complete economic report, click Ken's Market Report.

More From News Talk 96.5 KPEL