Investing.com – The Dow slumped on Monday, dragged down by index heavyweight Boeing (NYSE:BA) as a deadly crash cast doubt over the reliability of one of the company's biggest money-spinners.
Boeing, the heaviest-weighted component of the Dow, slumped 10% amid news that China and Indonesia - two of the biggest sales markets for the 737 Max 8 - had ordered it grounded after one crashed shortly after take-off on Sunday. There were no survivors among the 157 on board, and the disaster came just months after a crash involving the same model in Indonesia.
The Dow was down 140 points, or 0.55% as of 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT).
Aside from Boeing and engine-maker United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), most other stocks were higher after data showed a solid rebound in retail sales in January. sales fell even more sharply than first thought in December, which is normally the most important month in the year.
The S&P 500 rose 14 points or 0.52%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite increased 63 points, or 0.86%.
Technology stocks were among the biggest gainers, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) up 2.2%, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) gaining 2.5% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rising 1.1%.
Visa (NYSE:V) rose 1%, as Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) increased 1.3% and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was up 1.4%.
Elsewhere J&J (NYSE:JNJ) inched down 0.04% and UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) slipped 0.3%.
In commodities, gold futures retreated 0.3% to $1,295.45 a troy ounce while crude oil jumped 1.3% to $56.77 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, declined 0.10% to 97.172.