Wall Street flat as industrials offset lower oil; U.S. yields on radar

Global Stock Markets

U.S. stocks were little changed on Monday, with gains in industrial and healthcare stocks offseting the impact from falling oil prices, as investors kept an eye on rising U.S. bond yields.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RJR, the benchmark for global borrowing costs, hit 2.998 percent, its highest since January 2014. The U.S. five-year inflation swap, a key market gauge of long-term U.S. inflation, hit its highest level in 3-1/2 years.

The last time 10-year Treasury yields neared 3 percent, in 2013, it rocked risk appetite and sent stocks sliding and was shortly before oil prices went on a mighty 75 percent tumble. More recently, the stock market sold off in February as inflation expectations sent treasury yields surging.

But analysts say strong earnings could help investors overlook such concerns, at least for the moment.

The prospect of rising inflation comes as U.S. companies are reporting results for what is turning out to be a much stronger-than-expected first quarter.

Profits at S&P 500 companies are expected to have risen 20 percent in the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, making it the strongest quarter in seven years.

At 9:49 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 7.01 points, or 0.03 percent, at 24,469.95, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 1.48 points, or 0.06 percent, at 2,671.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 2.01 points, or 0.03 percent, at 7,148.14.

This week, 181 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report including some of the technology heavy-hitters like Facebook (FB.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Intel (INTC.O). Alphabet (GOOGL.O) reports after markets close on Monday.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 0.35 percent gain in the S&P healthacre index .SPXHC.

Merck (MRK.N) rose 1.6 percent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy”.
Caterpillar (CAT.N) rose 0.6 percent after Citigroup upgraded to “buy”, saying the stock could outperform over the next six to 12 months.

Boeing (BA.N) rose 0.3 percent, providing the biggest boost to the Dow and industrial stocks.
In a move that could ease tensions between the United States and China, U.S. Treasury Secretary

Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday he may travel to China to try to resolve differences over trade.
Hasbro (HAS.O) fell 1 percent after the toymaker reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly revenue, blaming the liquidation of Toys ‘R’ Us.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.15-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.14-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded three new 52-week highs and nine new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 31 new highs and 25 new lows