The Dow Jones Industrials flopped 112.96 points to close Monday at 33,517.65, after flying high much of the day, as defensive drug stocks like Merck and Johnson & Johnson weighed on the index.
The S&P 500 points shed 2.99 points to 3,892.09.
The NASDAQ Composite Index churned out gains of 66.36 points to 10,675.65, pushed up by a nearly 6% rally in Tesla stock.
That follows a winning week for the three major indexes, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their best weeks since November. A chunk of those gains came Friday, with the Dow rallying 700 points, while the S&P 500 gathered 2.3% and NASDAQ advanced 2.6%. Those gains were spurred by the latest batch of economic data released Friday.
Monday marks the fifth trading day, reminding investors of a classic Wall Street rule that suggests the market will end the year up if stocks perform well in the first five sessions. The S&P 500 has ended the year positive 83% of the times it ended the first five trading sessions up — and with an average gain of 14%, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
Investors will watch December’s consumer price index report coming Thursday and big bank earnings scheduled for Friday.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury recovered, lowering yields to 3.53% from Friday’s 3.56%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices poked ahead $1.04 to $74.81 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices climbed $5.90 to $1,875.60 U.S. an ounce.