Investing.com – Wall Street closed lower Monday as a drop in tech stocks on the back of worries about global growth. The fall was only partly offset by a rise in financials, which profited from Citigroup 's solid fourth-quarter earnings report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.36%, but closed well above its session lows of 23,765.24. The S&P 500 lost 0.59%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.94%.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) kicked off the fourth-quarter earnings season with a mixed report as earnings beat, while revenue missed consensus estimates, sending its shares 4% higher.
The mixed report from Citigroup did little to deter market participants, as investors viewed the recent sell off as "perhaps being overdone given the overall quality in the Citigroup report," according to Briefing.com.
The surge in Citigroup sparked a wave of buys in other banking stocks as JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) - both of which are slated to release quarterly earnings on Tuesday - ended the day higher.
Financials gained 1%, but gains in the broader market were stifled somewhat by falling tech stocks after weaker trade data from China raised concerns about slowing global growth.
Among FANG stocks, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) fell 1%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 1.5% as analysts called on the iPhone maker to cut prices of its latest smartphones in China and consider "significant" content acquisitions to drive services growth in 2019.
"Apple needs to aggressively cut prices in China on the iPhone XR as well as consider significant content acquisitions to drive services over the coming years," Wedbush said in a note to clients.
Apple was also pressured by fresh signs of waning iPhone demand after its supplier Dialog Semiconductor reported early revenue results at the low end of the expected range.
Energy names, meanwhile, struggled to advance after U.S. oil prices slipped 2.1% as concerns over slowing growth in China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, sparked fresh worries about a slowdown in demand.
In corporate news, Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) slumped 52% after the utility said it will file for bankruptcy and its chief executive officer will step down.
The subdued start to the week for US stocks comes as analysts suggested there's more room for growth as the economy is better positioned than its global peers to weather storms either internally or beyond its borders.
"We believe this strategic overweight [to U.S. stocks] is still warranted. While the U.S. is not immune to developments beyond its borders, the country is better positioned to weather future storms than virtually any other. It is also sufficiently resilient to absorb uncertainty from within," Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said in a note.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Citigroup (NYSE:C), The Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NASDAQ:GT) and State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG), Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM) and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.