Stocks finished lower on Monday after one report indicated job growth may be diminishing and another showed an unexpected drop in construction spending. This was a setback from last week, when all three major U.S. stock indexes hit their highest points since the summer of 2001.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53.58 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 10,729.43. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 9.84 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,202.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 23.29 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,152.15.

The Institute of Supply Management reported Monday a pickup in factory activity in the U.S. for December, as the purchasing manager’s index rose to 58.6 percent in December from 57.8 percent in November. However, within the monthly survey, the employment index fell to 52.7 percent from 57.6 in the previous month.

Among local movers, Ducommun Inc. gained 4.12 percent to close at $21.71 in the third trading day since Bloomberg columnist John Dorfman made the Carson-based aerospace parts supplier one of his 10 favorite stocks for 2005. The stock has ended in positive territory each session since the Dec. 30 announcement by Dorfman, who is president of Dorfman Investments.

On the downside, L.A.-based file-sharing pioneer Napster Inc. lost 4.5 percent to close at $8.94. Napster returned to the public eye on Monday after the company that acquired it, took its name and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NAPS.”

And Calabasas-based data communications firm Ixia sunk 12.1 percent to $14.77 after being downgraded to “hold” from “buy” by research firm Ferris Baker Watts.