Dow falls, reversing last week's US stock rally

NEW YORK: US stock markets were mixed but mostly lower on Tuesday, giving up a bit of the ground they gained during a strong five-day rally last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.90 points (0.10 percent) to close at 12,569.87.

The broader S&P 500 dropped 1.79 points (0.13 percent) to 1,337.88, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 9.74 points (0.35 percent) to 2,825.77.

US markets were closed on Monday because of the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Before the holiday, Wall Street enjoyed its strongest week in two years, with the Dow surging 5.4 percent in five days.

Europe's debt worries seemed to be weighing on the markets, with the Moody's ratings agency downgrading Portugal a day after Standard & Poor's warned that a proposed rescue plan for Greece could trigger a default.

In a sign US industry could be recovering from supply disruptions caused by the Japan earthquake, government data showed that new orders for manufactured goods rose 0.8 percent in May, after a 0.9 percent drop in April.

The markets will also be watching reports due later this week about jobless claims and unemployment for signs of strength in the US economy.

"Investors appear to be fence-sitting in afternoon trading ahead of a number of employment reports set for release later this week," analysts from Charles Schwab said in a market commentary.

Energy stocks rose on Tuesday as the price of oil jumped around two dollars in both New York and London, with Chevron gaining 1.0 percent and Marathon climbing 3.4 percent.

Shares of Netflix surged 8.1 percent after the online film-distribution company announced plans to expand its services to Latin America.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell to 3.14 percent from 3.20 percent late Friday, while that on the 30-year bond edged down to 4.39 percent from 4.40 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011