US stocks end near unchanged territory

Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola lead among blue chips

U.S. stock indices ended near unchanged territory on Monday, 28 October 2013 with the S&P 500 setting a record high for a second straight session after an industrial-production reading beat expectations but a pending-home-sales gauge missed forecasts. Investors also are focused on after-the-bell results from Apple and a Federal Reserve meeting later this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped in late action, giving back 1.35 points, or less than 0.1%, to 15,569.93. The Nasdaq Composite edged 3.23 points lower, or 0.1%, to 3,940.13. The S&P 500 rose 2.34 points, or 0.1%, to 1,762.11.

Consumer staples and health care were among the best-performing S&P 500 sectors, while utilities and materials lagged.

Among Dow components, Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola led among blue chips, while Merck and United Technologies were laggards.

The technology sector ended among the leaders with its top component, Apple adding 0.7% ahead of its after-hours earnings report. However, the Nasdaq could not build on the relative strength of the sector as momentum names like Facebook, Priceline.com, and Netflix ( weighed.

Today's economic data was limited to September industrial production and pending home sales. Industrial production increased 0.6% after rising 0.4% in August (consensus +0.3%). That was the largest monthly increase since February.

The headline number is undoubtedly striking for its perceived strength. However, that thought process is actually a misnomer. Rather than coming from manufacturing growth, almost the entire gain came from a 4.4% increase in utilities production. After five consecutive months of declines from cooler-than-normal temperatures, utility production returned to more normal levels as weather conditions reverted to their averages.

Manufacturing growth, which is key for economic growth, increased a very modest 0.1% in September, down from a 0.5% gain in August.

Separately, pending home sales for September tumbled 5.6%, which was worse than the 1.3% decrease forecast by the consensus. Today's reading followed last month's decrease of 1.6%.

Commodities are mostly lower/mixed by the end of Monday's trading session. In metals, there wasn't much of a change in price as December copper ended the day flat at $3.27/lb, December gold lost $0.50 to $1351.90/oz and December silver fell $0.21 to $22.52.

Crude oil rallied right at the open of pit trading from just under the $97.50/barrel level In electronic trade here, crude oil extended gains and rose to a new high of $98.75/barrel. During crude's floor trading session, it rose $0.84 and finished the day at $98.69/barrel Natural gas was weak all day and basically continued to extend losses slowly throughout the day.

Tomorrow, September retail sales and Producer Price Index will be reported at 8:30 ET, August Case-Shiller 20-City Index will cross the wires at 9:00 ET, and August business inventories will be announced at 10:00 ET. Also at 10:00 ET, the October Consumer Confidence report will be released.

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