U.S. Stocks Close Higher After Lackluster Session

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday with the Dow outperforming the other major averages in a somewhat lackluster session.

While the Dow stayed positive right through the day's session, the S&P 500 fell into the red around noon before recovering to move higher, and the Nasdaq spent much of the session in negative territory.

The Dow closed with a gain of 209.52 points or 0.62 percent at 33,944.40. The S&P 500 closed higher by 10.58 points or 0.24 percent at 4,409.53, while the Nasdaq climbed 24.77 points or 0.18 percent to settle at 13,685.48.

Traders were largely reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of closely watched data on consumer and producer price inflation later in the week.

The inflation data may have a considerable impact on the outlook for interest rates following last week's mixed monthly jobs report.

The annual rate of growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, is expected to slow to 5.0 percent from 5.3 percent.

Ahead of the inflation data, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating a 92.4 percent chance of another quarter point rate hike at the next Fed meeting later this month.

In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing wholesale inventories were roughly flat in the month of May.

The Commerce Department said wholesale inventories were virtually unchanged in May after falling by a revised 0.3 percent in April.

Economists had expected wholesale inventories to edge down by 0.1 percent, matching the dip originally reported for the previous month.

Intel gained more than 3 percent. Amgen, Home Depot, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Honeywell International gained 2 to 2.8 percent.

Caterpillar, Nike, American Express, Walmart, Merck, Cisco Systems and McDonalds also closed higher.

Verizon, Microsoft, Travelers Companies, Apple and Coca-Cola ended weak.

In overseas trading, tock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day, led by gains in energy stocks. While U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.23 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and Germany's DAX both climbed 0.45 percent.