Wall Street drifts as tech stocks climb and oil prices sink

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NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting on Monday as technology stocks recover some of their losses from late last week and oil prices sink.

The S&P 500 added 0.4% in morning trading, though slightly more stocks within it fell than rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 49 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher. All three are near their all-time highs set a week ago.

Big Tech stocks rose to lead the way. Amazon added 0.7% following its 5.1% drop last week, and Microsoft rose 0.8% following its 1.2% decline, for example. They were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500 because they're two of the biggest stocks on Wall Street.

On the losing end of the market were companies in the oil business, which were hurt by slumping crude prices. Drops of 2.2% for Exxon Mobil and 2.3% for Chevron were two of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

This week’s highlight for Wall Street is scheduled to arrive on Friday, when a report will be due about how many jobs U.S. employers created and destroyed last month. The hope is that it will be balanced enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to continue cutting interest rates.

The Fed just delivered its first cut of the year, and officials have penciled in more through the end of next year. That's critical for investors because U.S. stocks have shot to records since April in large part because of expectations for several cuts from the Fed. Easier rates can boost the economy and make investors more willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments.

If Friday’s job numbers prove too strong, they could remove the Fed’s urgency to cut rates. That could hurt stocks, which are already facing criticism that they’ve become too expensive after their big rally. If the job numbers prove too weak, they could mean a recession is coming that would hurt stock prices on its own.

One wild card may pop up in the interim: The U.S. government is heading toward a deadline that could result in its shutdown.

The United States has been getting more used to such shutdowns, and they’ve made minimal waves for the U.S. stock market and for the economy in the past. But a shutdown could delay the collection and release of economic data, such as on jobs and inflation. Without those reports, increasing uncertainty on Wall Street could make markets more twitchy.

This shutdown may also be different because the White House may push for large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.

“We believe that a shutdown will have only a small and transitory economic impact, but it may spur some financial market volatility,” according to Jennifer Timmerman, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

On Wall Street, Electronic Arts rallied 5% after the video game maker confirmed rumors of a mega-buyout. A group of investors will pay $210 in cash for each share of EA. Based on the number of shares it had outstanding in July, the price tag would be slightly above $52.5 billion, and the companies are calling it history’s largest all-cash deal to take a business private.

CSX chugged 3.2% higher after the railroad operator named Steve Angel as its chief executive. Angel was previously CEO of Linde and its predecessor Praxair, and he is replacing Joe Hinrichs, who also left CSX's board.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.

The FTSE 100 in London added 0.1% as GSK climbed 1.6% after the pharmaceutical giant said CEO Emma Walmsley will step down Dec. 31 following more than eight years at the helm. Luke Miels, currently GSK’s chief commercial officer, will replace the 56-year-old Walmsley, who was the first woman to lead a major pharmaceutical company

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 1.9%, and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.7% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

Oil prices slumped close to 3%. Analysts said reports that oil-producing nations in the OPEC+ group might raise their production limits next month added to the notion that too much supply is washing around the world

Gold topped $3,850 per ounce to continue its record-breaking run amid expectations for cuts to interest rates by the Fed and worries about potentially high inflation and the mountains of debt that governments worldwide are carrying.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.14% from 4.20% late Friday.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.