US Stocks mixed on Greece, China Worries, Energy Stocks down

Wall Street was mixed in morning trading Monday amid worries about Greece’s precarious financial condition and slowing growth in China, while energy stocks fell on weaker oil prices.

The U.S. stock market, which rallied on Friday on a strong jobs report, has been trading at historically expensive valuations, fueled by ultra-low borrowing costs.

“Even though the market closed up on Friday, more stocks were lower for the week and that points to weakness,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

“We could see some sloppy action for the next couple of sessions.”

U.S. light crude CLc1 was down after rising for eight straight weeks, the longest winning stretch since early 2013, on signs that U.S. shale oil production was recovering.

Six of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were up in late morning trading, but the energy index .SPNY was down 1.68 percent.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Chevron (CVX.N), ConocoPhilips (COP.N) were all down between 0.5 percent and 2 percent.

At 11:15 a.m. ET (1515 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 13.98 points, or 0.08 percent, at 18,177.13, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 1.12 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,114.98 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 5.97 points, or 0.12 percent, at 5,009.52.

Apple (AAPL.O) was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, with its shares down 1 percent at $126.68. Smartphone shipments in China shrank for the first time in six years, according to market research firm IDC.

European markets were under pressure as euro zone finance ministers met to discuss a cash-for-reforms deal for Greece, even though the country said it has made a payment of about 750 million euros ($836 million) to the IMF.

Asian shares rose on China’s third rate cut in six months but U.S. markets focused on slowing growth in the world’s largest-growing economy.

Rosetta Resources (ROSE.O) soared 25.6 percent to $24.27 after Noble Energy (NBL.N) said it would buy the company for about $2 billion in an all-stock deal. Noble shares down 7.3 percent at $45.75.

Mergers and acquisitions this year reached their highest first-quarter level since 2007 with announced deals worth a total of $811.8 billion in the quarter, up 21 percent year-on-year, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Zulily (ZU.O) shares jumped 9.9 percent to $14.62 after Alibaba (BABA.N) bought a 9 percent stake in the online retailer. Alibaba fell 0.4 percent to $86.68.

Viggle (VGGL.O) jumped 58.2 percent to $3.75 after the Web-based entertainment and marketing services provider’s quarterly revenue jumped 52 percent.

Go Daddy (GDDY.N) rose 3.2 percent to $25.67 after its post-IPO lock-up period expired, while Etsy (ETSY.O) fell 8.4 percent to $20.79 after Wedbush Securities downgraded it to “underperform” from “neutral.”

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,486 to 1,471, for a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,613 issues rose and 962 fell for a 1.68-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 index showed 18 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 45 new highs and 22 new lows.

Source: Reuters