US: Stocks end lower as petroleum shares tumble

WALL Street stocks ended modestly lower after a choppy session Monday (Aug 1) as petroleum-linked shares retreated, while Boeing rallied as it neared a resumption of deliveries of a key jet.

A relatively quiet week for corporate earnings reports will end with a bang on Friday with the government jobs data for July, which will be closely scrutinised for clues as to whether the Federal Reserve can be expected to dial back its aggressive interest rate hikes, as markets hope.

A survey of manufacturers showed slowing growth for the sector in July but showed that price increases have slowed dramatically.

Meanwhile, petroleum giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips fell 2 per cent or more following a pullback in crude prices on worries about weakening demand.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.1 per cent at 32,798.40.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.3 per cent to 4,118.63, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.2 per cent to 12,368.98.

Monday's lacklustre session came on the heels of a buoyant July that cut into the year's losses.

Among individual companies, Boeing surged 6.1 per cent as it moved closer to final regulatory approval to resume deliveries of its 787 jet.

The Federal Aviation Administration has signed off on Boeing's certification plan for the top-selling widebody plane, a person familiar with the situation told AFP.

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