NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks traded in a narrow range Monday after the euro touched another four-year low and markets in Europe dropped.
The Dow Jones industrials rose about 8 points at midday. The Dow slid 323 Friday to a four-month low on disappointment about the government’s May jobs report.
The euro fell as low as $1.1878 before rising to $1.1951. A drop in the 16-nation euro is seen as a sign of flagging confidence in Europe’s ability to rein in its debt without falling back into recession.
Hungary’s government backed off statements it made last week that it was facing a similar debt crisis to Greece. The market tumbled Friday after the country’s new government warned it could default. Hungary isn’t part of the European Union but European banks could be hit by bad loans if the country defaulted.
Questions over the health of Europe’s economy dominated trading again. There are few U.S. economic reports due early this week that could ease concerns about the jobs report. Traders dumped stocks Friday after the Labor Department’s employment report revealed that private employers hired far fewer workers in May than had been forecast.
Jim Thorne, chief investment officer for equities at MTB Investment Advisers in Baltimore, said the market’s retreat is overdone because traders are afraid they’re seeing a repeat of the financial crisis of 2008. Thorne said even though the jobs report Friday was disappointing, most numbers have pointed to an economy that is rebounding.
"Right now the market is getting to the point where it’s uninvestable. Fundamentals don’t matter," Thorne said. "This is a period that will be looked back upon six to eight months from now as a wonderful investing opportunity."
In midday trading, the Dow rose 8.35, or 0.1 percent, to 9,940.40. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.13, or 0.1 percent, to 1,066.01, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.14, or 0.5 percent, to 2,209.03.
Treasury prices were mixed after surging Friday on concern about the employment numbers. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, slipped to 3.20 percent from 3.21 percent late Friday.
The dollar was mixed against other currencies. Gold rose.
The government said Friday that private employers hired just 41,000 workers in May, down from 218,000 in April and the lowest number since January. It was a reminder to investors that while the economy is incrementally improving, the pace of recovery is not necessarily swift.
Advancing stocks narrowly outpaced those that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 521 million shares, compared with 587 million traded at the same point Friday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.84, or 0.3 percent, to 632.13.
