Wall Street little changed; DuPont boosts Dow and S&P

DuPont rose 10.6% to $56.74 after it said CEO Ellen Kullman would step down

US stocks were little changed in morning trading, with a surge in DuPont helping the Dow inch higher and a decline in health care stocks weighing on the Nasdaq.

The S&P was little changed after having gained 5.6 percent over the past five days, its best 5-day run since 2011.

DuPont rose 10.6 percent to $56.74 after it said CEO Ellen Kullman would step down. The stock gave the biggest boost to the S&P and the Dow, where it added nearly 36 points.

All three major U.S. indexes have gained since Friday when a weak U.S. jobs report led to expectations that the Federal Reserve would not raise interest rates this year, meaning the era of near-zero interest rates would continue.

At 9:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 62.67 points, or 0.37 percent, at 16,839.1. The S&P 500 was up 1.79 points, or 0.09 percent, at 1,988.84 and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.03 points, or 0.11 percent, at 4,776.23.

Six of the ten major S&P sectors were up, with the material sector's 1.5 percent gain leading the advancers.

The health sector fell 0.86 percent, after having posted gains for five days in a row. The Nasdaq biotech index was down 1.8 percent, falling for the second straight day.

Crude oil prices rose more than 1 percent, adding to their gains from Monday and boosting the energy index by 1.3 percent.

Worries about slowing global growth and its effect on economic policy and corporate results will be on investors minds as the U.S. corporate earnings season begins this week.

S&P 500 companies are expected to report a 4.2 percent fall in earnings in the third quarter, the biggest decline in six years, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Pepsi rose about 1.5 percent to $97.29 after it reported better-than-expected third-quarter results and raised its forecast for the year.

PMC-Sierra jumped 32.8 percent to $10.21 after Apple supplier Skyworks said it would buy the chipmaker for $2 billion. Skyworks was down 1.4 percent at $80.69.

Brewer Molson Coors fell 2.2 percent to $82.43 after Bloomberg reported that partner SABMiller had rejected AB Inbev's informal buyout offer. Molson Coors would have benefited from opportunities created by the merger.

Yum Brands reports results after the close.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams is scheduled to speak on economic outlook at 5:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT).

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,679 to 1,001. On the Nasdaq, 1,228 issues rose and 1,094 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed four new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 20 new highs and 11 new lows.

 

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)