WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After failing to sustain an initial move to the upside, stocks gave back ground in early trading on Monday and fluctuated over the remainder of the sessions. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing narrowly mixed.
While the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 43.74 points or 0.2 percent to a nearly three-month closing low of 24,932.08, the S&P 500 inched up 1.20 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 7,413.18 and the narrower Dow climbed 262.83 points or 0.5 percent to 52,210.08.
The initial strength on Wall Street came amid an extended pullback by the price of crude oil, with U.S. crude oil futures plummeting by more than 8 percent.
Crude oil prices plunged on news U.S. President Donald Trump has halted nearly two weeks of attacks on Iran to allow more room for diplomacy.
'He's giving talks some space, he's giving it a little bit of room,' U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News on Sunday.
Iran subsequently stopped conducting counterattacks and said it had made progress in talks with Oman on management of the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury yields have slumped along with the price of crude oil, easing concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting this week.
The subsequent pullback by the markets came amid significant weakness among semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling by 2.2 percent to its lowest closing level in well over two months.
Energy stocks also saw significant weakness amid the steep drop by crude oil prices, while software stocks have moved sharply higher, driving the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index up by 2.7 percent.
The slump by the price of crude oil also contributed to notable strength among airline stocks, resulting in a 2.5 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.
In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods rebounded by much less than expected in the month of June.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose by 0.3 percent in June after tumbling by a revised 4.0 percent in May.
Economists had expected durable goods orders to jump by 1.7 percent compared to the 4.5 percent plunge originally reported for the previous month.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.5 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index shot up by 1.2 percent.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both rose by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries extended the rebound seen during last Friday's session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 3.8 basis points to 4.641 percent.
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