Stocks ended the day slightly lower on Monday as investors appeared to take in stride oil prices that closed at a record high near $60 per barrel.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 13.96, or 0.1 percent, to 10,609.11, ending seven straight sessions of gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 0.86, or 0.1 percent, to 1,216.10. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.98, or 0.1 percent, to 2,088.13.
Oil prices set an all-time high as worries about a winter fuel crunch forced OPEC to consider lifting supply quotas again. Building on last week’s energy price surge, crude oil futures reached a new intraday record of $59.52 per barrel, stoking anxiety that higher prices could slow economic growth. A barrel of light crude settled at a record $59.37, up 90 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Among local companies, shares of Cogent Inc. gained 6.7 percent to close at $25.34 after the South Pasadena-based firm said it received a letter of intent for a $31.8 million follow-on order to provide its automated fingerprint identification systems to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council. The contract is for a joint development project to create a paperless, national voter registration and authentication database covering 24 million voters for state and county elections.
Tarrant Apparel Group rose 2.1 percent to $3.81 after the L.A.-based casual apparel company said it is abandoning a plan to acquire Qorus.com Inc. and have that company run its Private Brands business. Chairman Gerard Guez said that the company has decided that keeping the unit within its Tarrant Apparel Group will give it the best opportunity to grow.
On the down side, shares of International Aluminum Corp. fell 2.6 percent after the Monterey Park-based aluminum and vinyl products manufacturer announced that Ronald L. Rudy was named chief executive officer, replacing C.C. Vanderstar, who will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors. Vanderstar, the company’s founder, has served as CEO since 1963. In February, the company said Rudy would replace David C. Treinen as its president and chief operating officer. Rudy had been the senior vice president-operations since 1995.
And Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. lost 0.6 percent to $74.80 after the Pasadena-based real estate investment trust said its board approved a 3 percent increase in the quarterly cash dividend on its common stock, to 69 cents a share. The dividend is payable on July 15 to shareholders of record on July 1.
