U.S. stocks edged higher in early trading on Wall Street Monday following two weeks of gains.
Trading remained choppy as uncertainty continued over several ongoing trade disputes and their possible effect on economic growth.
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Technology companies were among the early gainers. Qualcomm, Facebook and Netflix rose. Retailers also gained ground. Amazon and CarMax climbed.
Utilities and makers of consumer products lagged the market as investors headed away from safe-play stocks to riskier holdings. Coca-Cola fell.
The muted gains mirror last week’s pattern of choppy day-to-day trading as investors search for direction ahead of an interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve later this week.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index rose 0.2% as of 10:26 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44 points, or 0.2%, to 26,134. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%.
COSTLY PRESCRIPTION: Array BioPharma surged 57.4% after announcing that it had agreed to be bought by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for $11.4 billion.
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Array currently makes an advanced skin cancer treatment and has a deep pipeline of cancer drugs in development. Pfizer makes a wide range of cancer and other drugs. It is the biggest U.S. drugmaker by revenue.
SURGING BID: New York auction house Sotheby’s surged 57.1% after announcing its sale to Patrick Drahi, a media and telecom entrepreneur and art collector.
THE CONTEXT: The S&P 500 eked out a slight 0.5% gain last week. That followed a 4.4% weekly gain. Investors have been swinging between risky and safe-play holdings on a lack of developments in the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China. Jitters over trade disputes and their impact on global economic growth have created a volatile market.
