Stocks Edged Lower; Bank of America Beat Expections

U.S. stocks edged lower in the early trading on Monday as investors waited for a slew of earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 37.59 points, or 0.21%, to 18,100.79. The S&P 500 was down 4.94 points, or 0.23%, to 2,128.04. The Nasdaq Composite shed 15.67 points or 0.30%, to 5,198.49.

Bank of America Corp. said its third-quarter profit rose as the Charlotte, N.C., lender worked to shake off the continued drag of low interest rates. The bank reported a profit of $4.96 billion, or 41 cents a share. That compares with $4.62 billion, or 38 cents a share, in the same period of 2015. Revenue rose about 3% to $21.6 billion.

Crude futures fell on Monday, dragged lower by the increase in active oil rigs in the U.S. and a stronger greenback. Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at $50.25 a barrel, down $0.10. December Brent crude fell $0.03 to $51.92 a barrel.

Output at U.S. manufacturers rose for the third time in four months on production of consumer goods and construction materials, a sign the industry is recovering from a prolonged spell of weakness. The 0.2 percent gain at factories, which make up 75 percent of production, followed a 0.5 percent decrease the prior month, a Federal Reserve report showed Monday in Washington.