By Caitlin Ostroff and Joanne Chiu 

U.S. stocks drifted between small gains and losses Monday, weighed down by a decline in energy shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 35 points, or 0.1%, to 26852. The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%.

Stock moves were relatively muted, with traders attributing the lull to the Columbus Day holiday. Bond markets and most banks will be closed in observance of the holiday.

Signs of progress between the U.S. and China on trade helped stocks rally at the end of last week. Yet many investors have noted that details on key issues like intellectual property have remained elusive, and that a deal may still collapse.

Adding to investors' skepticism, state-run publications in China have had a much more measured tone in describing the two countries' preliminary agreement, analysts said.

"At the end of the day, all that happened on Friday was the tariffs were postponed," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. The U.S. is still poised to impose an additional round of tariffs starting mid-December.

U.S. crude oil fell 2.4% to $53.38 a barrel, with some analysts attributing the declines to waning hopes for a solid U.S.-China trade deal.

That put pressure on energy shares, with Cimarex Energy losing 2.5% and Devon Energy falling 3.3%.

Meanwhile, corporate news drove some swings among individual stocks.

General Motors lost 0.3% after the United Auto Workers union said it was increasing its weekly payout to workers on strike, suggesting it was preparing to extend a nearly monthlong walkout.

Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.5%, while the pound weakened against the dollar.

The weekend of talks between European Union and British negotiators, who face a deadline this week to reach a deal on Brexit, failed to yield a breakthrough. Diplomats said even the outline of a deal looked difficult to clinch, given the gap between the sides and the complexity of the issues.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index dropped 0.5%.

Adding to global growth concerns, Chinese trade data released Monday showed further declines in the country's exports in September, largely as a result of the trade dispute.

Still, stocks in Asia, which ended trade Friday before President Trump said the U.S. and China had completed the early stages of a deal, rallied Monday. The Shanghai Composite gauge advanced 1.2%, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rose 0.8%.

Akane Otani contributed to this article

Write to Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com and Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 14, 2019 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)

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