US stocks dipped slightly on Monday in a quiet trading session as investors struck a cautious note after Friday's sharp rally.
Coca-Cola Co kept a lid on the Dow's losses after an analyst forecast a rebound in Japanese sales.
AT&T Wireless was the heaviest traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange, rising after British mobile phone company Vodafone Group Plc hinted it was interested in buying its US rival.
"You're going to trade here back and forth for a little bit. The market is in a wait-and-see attitude," said Jay Suskind, head trader at Ryan Beck & Co "Everyone's trying to spin the employment numbers to a bullish standpoint. People are trying to figure out if the report was good, bad or indifferent."
Stocks rallied strongly on Friday after a lukewarm jobs report showed the economy was creating jobs but not so quickly that the Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates soon to cool an overheating economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 14 points, or 0.13 percent, at 10,579.03. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended down 2.95 points, or 0.26 percent, at 1,139.81. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 3.44 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,060.57.
Investors' eyes are now fixed on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who is set to testify before Congress on monetary policy and the economy on Wednesday.
Trading was light, with nearly 1.3 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, just below the 1.4 billion daily average for last year. About 1.7 billion shares were traded on Nasdaq, below the 1.8 billion daily average last year. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 5 to 4 and 6 to 5 on Nasdaq.
Coca Cola kept a lid on the Dow's losses, rising $1.41, or 2.8 percent, to $52.40 after Goldman Sachs said it was encouraged by "preliminary" signs of a rebound in the soft-drink maker's Japanese market. Coca-Cola, which is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, gets about 20 percent of its operating profits from Japan.
AT&T Wireless rose 20 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $11.30 after Vodafone said it "continues to monitor developments" in the bidding for the company. Vodafone's American Depository Receipts, or ADRs, rose 17 cents to $25.54.
In other news, Juniper Networks Inc, the No 2 maker of networking gear, said it would acquire network security company NetScreen Technologies Inc in a stock swap worth about $3.4 billion.
Juniper shares fell $3.29, or 11.1 percent, to $26.18, while NetScreen jumped $9.54, or 36 percent, to $35.94.
In economic news, inventories at US wholesalers posted their largest rise in a year in December, the Commerce Department said, indicating that US businesses were gearing up for strong growth ahead. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City showed manufacturing expanded in January.
Comments
Comments are closed.