Stocks Ended Mostly Higher as Tech Climbed

U.S. stocks ended mostly higher on Monday, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 finished higher and the Dow closing fractionally lower, helped by the renewed interest in technology stocks spurred by an Amazon Prime online sale event. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5.82 points, or 0.03%, to 21,408.52. The S&P 500 added 2.25 points, or 0.09%, to 2,427.43. The Nasdaq Composite gained 23.31 points, or 0.38%, to 6,176.39.

Oil ended modestly higher Monday as news that Libya and Nigeria have been invited to join OPEC’s meeting with other major producers later this month provided support to futures prices. August West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 17 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $44.40 a barrel. September Brent added 17 cents, or 0.4%, to $46.88.

Amazon’s annual day of deals kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on Monday. It’s the third installment of Prime Day, and the event has already proven to net massive sales. This year the company has promised it will be bigger than ever, with discounts on hundreds of thousands of items for Prime members all over the globe.

Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of 89 cents per share on its common stock. This would mark a quarterly increase of 3.5 cents or 4.1%.