Stocks drift mostly lower on Wall Street ahead of earnings

BEIJING — Stocks are drifting mostly lower in early trading on Wall Street as investors look ahead to another big week of earnings reports, this time from major technology companies including Facebook and Apple. The S&P 500 was down 0.1% early Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were down similar amounts. Major U.S. indexes are coming off three weeks of gains. Tesla rose 5% after Hertz said it would order 100,000 electric vehicles from the company. European markets were mostly higher and Asian markets closed mostly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.63%.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets rose Monday after Wall Street slipped and China tightened travel controls in some areas in response to coronavirus infections.

Shanghai and Hong Kong advanced while London and Frankfurt opened higher. Tokyo declined.

On Wall Street, futures for the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1% higher.

The Chinese capital, Beijing, banned visitors from areas with infections in the past 14 days and Gansu province in the northwest closed tourist sites after coronavirus cases were found. China has reported a few dozen cases, but Beijing’s response of curbing travel prompted concern that might weigh on economic activity that already is weakening.

“It is a potential dark cloud if it results in widespread social restrictions,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE in London rose 0.5% to 7,240.10 and the DAX in Frankfurt added 0.2% to 15,568.72. The CAC 40 in Paris shed less than 0.1% to 6,731.13.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.8% to 3,609.86 while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.7% to 28,600.41. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added less than 0.1% to 26,132.03.

The Kospi in Seoul advanced 0.5% to 3,020.54 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 7,441.00.

India’s Sensex gained 0.3% to 61,019.36. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets declined.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 lost 0.1% on Friday, weighed down by losses for tech companies after a seven-day streak of gains. The Dow gained 0.2% to a new high while the Nasdaq composite slid 0.8%.

Some 65% of stocks in the S&P 500 closed higher, led mainly by financial and health care companies, but losses in communication and technology companies held the S&P 500 down. Chipmaker Intel slumped 11.7% after reporting disappointing revenue.

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, plunged 26.6% after reporting weak revenue and disclosing that its ad sales are being hurt by a privacy crackdown that rolled out on Apple’s iPhones earlier this year. Facebook fell 5.1% and Twitter lost 4.8%. Google’s parent, Alphabet, declined 3%.

The three major indexes posted their third weekly gain after investors were encouraged by mostly solid corporate results.

Also Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said industrial supply chain problems have gotten worse and will likely keep inflation elevated well into next year.

Investors are looking for clues as to how companies are navigating supply chain problems and rising costs for materials, transportation and other goods and services. Many companies have warned higher costs will hurt operations.

Powell also said the Fed isn’t prepared to lift its benchmark interest rate from near zero. But he suggested the economy might be ready for a rate hike next year.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude rose 72 cents to $84.48 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.26 to $83.76 on Friday. Brent crude, used as the price basis for international oils, lost 26 cents to $85.27 per barrel in London. It rose 92 cents the previous session to $85.53.

The dollar gained to 113.64 yen from Friday’s 113.44 yen. The euro rose to $1.1648 from $1.1637.