Stocks Ended mostly higher Posting Solid Monthly Gains

U.S. stocks ended mostly higher on Friday and posted solid monthly gains. Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 24.11 points, 0.13%, to 18,432.24 and posted a 0.8% loss over the week. Over the month, the blue-chip index gained 2.8%. The S&P 500 rose 3.54 points, or 0.16% to 2,173.60, finishing the week flat. Over the month, the index gained 3.6%. The The Nasdaq Composite ended the session up 7.15 points, or 0.14%, to 5,162.13, posting a 1.2% gain over the week and a 6.6% gain over the month.

Oil prices steadied on Friday after touching three-month lows amid a week-long selloff but still finished the month nearly 15 percent lower, with U.S. crude declining the most in a year because of a persistent glut. The September Brent contract , which expired as the front-month, settled at $42.46 a barrel, down 0.6 percent on the day and 14.5 percent on the month.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. missed profit and production estimates as wildfires, writedowns and weak refining margins battered oil explorers already reeling under a glut-driven price collapse.

The board of brewer SABMiller (SAB.L) will recommend its shareholders approve a sweetened takeover offer by Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), the company said on Friday, capping a week of high drama about the fate of the consumer industry’s biggest-ever merger.