Stocks end mostly lower as tech shares tumble
Stocks ended mostly lower Monday and extended last week's losses as investors remain cautious ahead of a busy week of economic and market news.
Tech stocks led the declines as the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index tumbled 1.1% to 4519. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 0.1% to 1984.
The Dow Jones industrial average bucked the negative trend and gained 0.3% to 17,031.
The focus on interest rates remain front and center this week as markets anxiously await the outcome of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting that starts Tuesday to see if signs of a recovering economy leads to rate hikes.
As the Fed winds down its bond-buying program, investors will be watching for any change in the central bank's guidance on when it will begin raising interest rates.
In addition to the Fed, investors will be watching Scotland's vote Thursday on independence and the fate of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba's IPO.
A weak report on U.S. manufacturing also weighed on the markets as industrial production dropped for the first time in seven months.
In corporate merger news:
• Microsoft (MSFT) agreed to buy Mojang, the maker of the video game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Shares of Microsoft fell 1%.
• Shares of Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) fell 1% after the company announced it was buying the privately-held health care software company TriZetto for $2.7 billion.
• TRW Automotive (TRW) agreed to be bought by Germany's ZF Friedrichshafen for 11.7 billion. Shares of TRW Automotive fell 0.8%.
• The world's third-largest brewer Heineken rejected a takeover bid by rival SABMiller. London-based SAB Miller is the world's second-largest brewer behind Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Overseas, Russian stocks and the ruble fell with the currency dropping to a record as the U.S. and European Union toughened sanctions against the country last week.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.04% to 6804.21 three days ahead of the vote on the referendum for Scottish independence, while Germany's DAX rose 0.1% to 9659.63. France's CAC-40 lost 0.3% to 4428.63.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 39.09 points, or 0.3%, to 15,948.29 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 238.33 points, or 1%, to 24,356.99 and the Shanghai Composite gained 7.19 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 2339.14.
Friday, stocks fell and posted their first negative week in six weeks. The Dow closed down 61.49 points, 0.4%, to 16,987.51 and the S&P 500 finished down 11.91 points, 0.6% to 1985.54. The Nasdaq fell 24.21 points, 0.5%, to end at 4567.60.