By Wallace Witkowski and Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? U.S. stocks finished slightly lower Monday on the lightest volume trading day of 2013, as energy and retail shares underperformed and investors reassessed a rally that?s lifted benchmark indexes 6% this year.
Week ahead: State of the Union, G20
President Obama will give his State of the Union address on Tuesday, and later in the week, G20 leaders convene in Moscow.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average? /quotes/zigman/627449 DJIA -0.16% ?never rose above its Friday close and ended down 21.73 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 13,971.24, with 16 of its 30 components ending down. The index traded within a narrow 53-point range throughout the session.
On the Dow, shares of Home Depot Inc. /quotes/zigman/229488/quotes/nls/hd HD -0.94% ?and UnitedHealth Group Inc. /quotes/zigman/258846/quotes/nls/unh UNH -1.07% ?led the decline, falling about 1%. Shares of blue-chips Microsoft Corp. /quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT +1.13% ?and Pfizer Inc. /quotes/zigman/238207/quotes/nls/pfe PFE +0.97% ?gained about 1%.
The S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX -0.06% ?slipped 0.92 point, or less than 0.1%, to close at 1,517.01, with 7 out of its 10 major sectors trading lower. The benchmark rose 0.3% last week, gaining for a sixth consecutive week.
Energy stocks led the decline even as crude futures traded higher Monday and refiners held onto recent gains. Read more on energy stocks.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index /quotes/zigman/12633936 COMP -0.06% ?fell 1.87 points, or less than 0.1%, to close at 3,192.
Trading volume was at its lowest volume of the year, bumping Friday?s low volume for that honor. Volume of NYSE-listed shares was 2.6 billion. For Nasdaq-listed shares, it was 1.54 billion. For the year to date, average daily volume is 3.59 billion for NYSE-listed shares, and 1.9 billion for Nasdaq-listed shares, according to Barclays.
Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by about 16 to 13 on the NYSE, and slightly outnumbered them on the Nasdaq.
?Largely absent any news, I?d say markets are working off an overbought phase and taking a pause,? said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.
Stocks have been trading near five-year highs, raising the possibility the market might be able to break out of its long period of lackluster performance, or what?s known as a secular bear market. Read: Is Bull Sprint Becoming a Marathon? at WSJ.com.
Goldman Sachs has grown cautious on global equities in the near term, cutting its recommendation to neutral from overweight on a three-month basis. Read more on Goldman's bearish views.
/conga/story/misc/markets.html 240610Most Asian markets were closed, eliminating one more possible driver for the market, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG.
While Monday may be lacking catalysts, retail sales data on Wednesday will likely have a big effect on stocks, according to a note from Citi?s Steven Englander.
With higher taxes kicking in on Jan. 1, ?retail sales will be the first really hard data on the impact of the tax hike,? Englander said. Read what's expected from retail sales.
Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast sales to show a scant 0.1% seasonally adjusted increase, reflecting the expiration of a payroll tax cut, higher gasoline prices, and delayed tax refunds.
The only other possible market catalyst in the next day or two is President Barack Obama?s annual State of the Union address Tuesday night. Read 'Obama to reward coalition in State of the Union speech.'
Shares of Google Inc. /quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog GOOG -0.38% ?declined 0.4% after the Internet-search firm said late Friday that its chairman, Eric Schmidt, planned to sell nearly half of his stake in the company.
In the currency markets, the dollar /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD -0.0040% fell against the euro, but the U.S. dollar Index /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY +0.18% ?, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was trading at 80.35, compared with 80.25 late Friday. Read more on currencies.
News reports said officials from the Group of Seven nations continue to weigh the possibility of issuing a statement aimed at averting a so-called currency war. A pair of officials from the Group of 20 told Reuters that a G-7 statement could be released ahead of the meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bankers in Moscow this week.
/quotes/zigman/627449
US : DJ-Index
Volume: 75.09M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:38p
/quotes/zigman/229488/quotes/nls/hd US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 3.89M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:00p
Market Cap$100.19 billion
Rev. per Employee$219,100
/quotes/zigman/258846/quotes/nls/unh US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 4.15M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:00p
/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 32.15M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:00p
Market Cap$230.77 billion
Rev. per Employee$774,085
/quotes/zigman/238207/quotes/nls/pfe US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 26.12M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:00p
Market Cap$197.91 billion
Rev. per Employee$568,814
/quotes/zigman/3870025 US : S&P Base CME
Volume: 382.89M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:38p
/quotes/zigman/12633936 US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 0.00
Feb. 11, 2013 5:16p
/quotes/zigman/93888/quotes/nls/goog US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 2.16M
Feb. 11, 2013 4:00p
Market Cap$260.07 billion
Rev. per Employee$927,536
/quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled US : ICAP Currencies
Volume: 0.0000
Feb. 11, 2013 5:17p
/quotes/zigman/1652083 US : U.S.: ICE Futures U.S.
Volume: 0.00
Feb. 11, 2013 5:07p
Wallace Witkowski is a MarketWatch news editor in San Francisco. Follow him on Twitter @wmwitkowski. Polya Lesova is MarketWatch's New York deputy bureau chief. Follow her on Twitter @PolyaLesova.
Source: http://feeds.marketwatch.com/~r/marketwatch/internet/~3/AYJbJig-ytw/story.asp
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