– National
Stocks ended a lethargic session lower Monday as a lack of economic news returned investors’ focus to interest rates and inflation ahead of comments from new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later in the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26.73, or 0.2 percent, to 10,892.32. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 4.13, or 0.3 percent, to 1,262.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 22.07, or 1 percent, to 2,239.81.
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– Local
Local movers were led by Jakks Pacific Inc, which gained 6.5 percent to $24.10, and Skechers USA Inc., which rose 4.1 percent to $19.57. On the down side, Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. fell 2.5 percent to $75.77 and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. lost 2 percent to $80.94.
Shares of Computer Sciences Corp. jumped 1.4 percent to $52.06 after the El Segundo-based technology services company announced it had teamed with Citadel Security Software Inc. to offer vulnerability and compliance management services to reduce the risk of cyber attacks for clients worldwide.
The DirecTV Group Inc gained 1 percent to $14.90 after the El Segundo-based satellite TV provider’s stock rating was raised to “market perform” from “underperform” by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. The price target was set at $16 per share.
Activision Inc. climbed 0.9 percent to $13.07 after the Santa Monica-based video game publisher announced a licensing agreement with Hasbro Inc. to develop video games based on Hasbro’s Transformers brand. The first game will be tied to the July 4, 2007, movie release of the live-action Transformers film from DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures.
