Stocks close lower, falling from Friday’s record highs

A mostly listless day of trading left U.S. stock indexes little changed Monday, hovering just below the record highs they set late last week.

Drug company and consumer-focused stocks weighed on the market, while energy companies surged, getting a lift from a pickup in crude oil prices.

The slight pullback came as investors took advantage of the milestones reached Friday by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite to pocket some gains. Strong U.S. jobs data left traders feeling more confident in the economy heading into this week.

“It’s a little bit of profit-taking,” said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. “We’re coming off a good employment number and we know the consumer’s been strong.”

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 14.24 points, or 0.1%, to 18,529.29. The S&P 500 index edged down 1.98 points, or 0.1%, to 2,180.89. The Nasdaq shed 7.98 points, or 0.2%, to 5,213.14.

The stock market hit record highs Friday after the Labor Department said U.S. employers added far more jobs in July than investors expected. The hiring spree, which followed an even bigger surge in June, gave investors more confidence that the economy is still growing.

The major stock indexes appeared headed for another day of gains early on, as markets in Asia and Europe shrugged off new data showing China’s exports and imports declined again last month. A report indicating industrial production in Germany grew faster than expected in June helped lift markets overseas.

U.S. markets initially wavered between small gains and losses, but ultimately remained slightly down the rest of the day.

Two drugmakers weighed on the market early on.

Bristol-Myers Squibb was hammered, sinking 4.7% to $60.30, after plunging Friday following news that the drugmaker’s cancer treatment Opdivo failed in a study aimed at extending its usage for lung cancer patients.

Allergan slid 2.2% to $248.31 after the Botox maker’s second-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street forecasts.

A pickup in oil prices drove several oil and natural gas companies higher.

Marathon Oil rose 2.7% to $14.25, Tesoro climbed 3.7%, to $77.47, and Chesapeake Energy ticked up 2.5% to $5.01.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.9% to $43.02 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, climbed 2.5% to $45.39 a barrel.

Investors also had their eye on some corporate deal news.

Wal-Mart Stores slipped 0.6% to $73.34 after the retail giant agreed to buy fast-growing online retail newcomer Jet.com for $3 billion in cash and an additional $300 million in stock. The deal underscores how serious Wal-Mart is about challenging online leader Amazon.

Mattress Firm soared 114% to $63.75 after the mattress retailer agreed to be acquired by furniture seller Steinhoff International in a deal valued at $3.8 billion, including debt.

Netflix fell 2% to $95.11 after reports that China’s Alibaba Group is not preparing to invest in the video-streaming service.

Investors should get more insight into the health of the economy at the end of this week, when the government reports July’s retail sales figures.

“That’s probably the most important data point this week,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “We’re looking for a strong retail report that again confirms that the U.S. consumer is strong and doing their job of helping the economy.”

Major stock indexes in Europe eked out gains. Germany’s DAX rose 0.6%, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.1% and Britain’s FTSE 100 index advanced 0.2%.

Markets in Asia moved mostly higher despite the discouraging economic data out of China. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.6%, and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9%. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 surged 2.4%.

In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline slipped a penny to $1.36 a gallon, while heating oil rose 3 cents to $1.34 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $2.75 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $3.10, or 0.2%, to $1,341.30 an ounce. Silver slipped 1 cent to $19.81 an ounce. Copper rose a penny, or 0.5%, to $2.17 a pound.

Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held at 1.59%. In currency markets, the dollar rose to 102.47 yen from Friday’s 101.75 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1083 from $1.1091.

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UPDATES:

2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with more recent prices and additional information.

1:15 p.m.: This article was updated with the close of markets.

8:35 a.m.: This article was updated with more recent prices and additional information.

This article was originally published at 6:55 a.m.