US stocks clawed back from early losses on Monday, showing resiliency despite Greece’s stalled bid to obtain a crucial debt writedown from private creditors to avoid default.
Pulling back from opening losses of more than one per cent, the major indexes ended only modestly in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 6.74 points (0.05 per cent) to finish at 12,653.72 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4.61 points (0.16 per cent) to 2,811.94.
The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, shed 3.31 points (0.25 per cent) to 1,313.02.
Wall Street was gripped with “renewed default concerns toward Greece and Portugal,” Charles Schwab analysts said.
“The concerns are resurfacing as Greek debt-swap negotiations with its private creditors continued with no agreement thus far,” they said.
Traders awaited the outcome of a European Union summit aimed at containing the eurozone crisis and bolstering the region’s financial system.
Minutes before Wall Street markets closed, EU president Herman Van Rompuy announced that 25 of 27 EU nations had agreed to join a fiscal pact aimed at preventing future debt crises.
Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to sign up.
Dow component ExxonMobil dropped 0.4 per cent to $85.49 after announcing over the weekend it would restructure its holdings in Japan by selling its refining and marketing operations to local partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu.
Shares in electrical-component maker Thomas & Betts soared 23.1 per cent to $71.31. Swiss engineering giant ABB announced on Monday it would acquire the firm for $3.9 billion.
The US Commerce Department reported personal spending was flat in December, while incomes rose 0.5 per cent. Analysts noted the data had been largely captured in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth number published Friday.
On Friday stocks finished mixed after the government reported fourth-quarter GDP growth at 2.8 per cent, well below the consensus forecast of 3.2 per cent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.84 per cent from 1.90 per cent Friday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.98 per cent from 3.06 per cent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
