Investing.com – Wall Street started flat on Monday as the rising price of oil weighed on earnings news.
The S&P 500 lost 2.5 points, or 0.09%, to 2,798.65 as of 9:50 AM ET (13:50 GMT), while the Dow decreased 14 points, or 0.06%, to 25,005.06 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 0.5 point, or 0.01%, to 7,825.53.
Second-quarter earnings continue on Monday. BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) reported higher than expected earnings, but said inflows were slowing due to investor uncertainty. The financial giant fell 1.25% after the morning bell. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was up 1.73% after its financial results came in better than expected. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is set to release its results after market close. The streaming site was up 1.44%.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose 0.73%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 0.55% and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) jumped 1.49%.
Earnings results were dimmed by energy companies, as the price of oil fell amid supply concerns. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said some crude importers could get waivers to continue to buy from Iran, despite U.S. sanctions against the country.
Exxon (NYSE:XOM) fell 1.01%, while Chevron (NYSE:CVX) dropped 1.15%.
In Europe, stocks were mostly down. Germany’s DAX rose 23 points, or 0.19%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 10 points, or 0.19%, and in London the FTSE 100 was down 65 points, or 0.85%. Meanwhile, the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost half a point, or 0.02%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 inched up 16 points, or 0.17%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.03% to $1,241.60 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures slumped 2.46% to $68.23 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.22% to 94.23.