S & P is trading almost flat as Citigroup's results weigh on bank stocks By Reuters

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S & P 500 benchmark changed little on Monday after hovering between positive territory and negative territory throughout the session. Citigroup Inc (N 🙂 launched the results season with a mixed quarterly report.

The bank announced a profit above expectations, but also a decline in its net interest margin. The decline in net interest margin led to a decline in the shares of other banks, fearing to announce a decline in earnings across the sector, lower interest rates.

Although Citigroup's shares erased almost all of their losses and dropped only 0.1%, the S & P 500 banking index <.spxbk> slipped 1.0%. Actions of JPMorgan Chase & Co (N :), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (N 🙂 and Wells Fargo & Co (N 🙂 – all ready to present their results on Tuesday – lost more than 1%.

As a result, financial stocks () fell 0.5% to weigh more heavily on the S & P 500 among its 11 main sectors.

Technological () and health () gains, however, offset losses in financial stocks. These sectors helped Nasdaq gain momentum and record a fourth consecutive record at closing.

Q2 earnings are starting this week and analysts are expecting S & P 500 companies to record a 0.3% drop in earnings, the first quarterly decline in three years. according to IBES Refinitiv data.

US stocks will likely be reduced to a minimum until further results emerge, said Oliver Pursche, chief markets strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York. The three major indexes ended last week at record closing highs, dovish comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, bolstering the hope that the central bank will reduce its interest rates later this year. month.

"It's definitely a wait-and-see environment," said Pursche. "Citi was considered slightly disappointing."

Still, strong earnings could boost US equities, said Lamar Villere, portfolio manager of the Villere Balanced Fund in New Orleans.

"We think the benefits will generally be positive this season," he said. "We are on a tear this year, but we still have room to go."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average () rose 27.13 points, or 0.1%, to 27,359.16, the S & P 500 () advanced 0.53 percentage points, or 0.02%, to 3 014.3 and Nasdaq Composite () added 14.04 points, or 0.17%, to 8258.19.

Gilead Sciences Inc (O 🙂 's shares rose 2.7%, boosting the S & P 500 health index, as drug maker announced it would invest $ 5.1 billion in major expansion of its partnership with biotech. Galapagos NV (AS :).

Boeing Co (N 🙂 shares slid 1.0% as a result of a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that its 737 MAX jet could remain anchored until early 2020.

Symantec Corp Shares (O 🙂 fell 10.7%, the largest percentage decline among S & P 500 companies, after a report that the cybersecurity company and Broadcom Inc. (O 🙂 have stopped the talks. Broadcom shares increased 1.0%.

Increasing issues outnumbered declining issues on the New York Stock Exchange with a ratio of 1.04 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.06: 1 favored the decline.

The S & P 500 recorded 66 new highs over 52 weeks and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 77 new highs and 64 new lows.

US trade volume was 5.39 billion shares, compared to 6.69 billion shares on average for the full trading session of the last 20 trading days.