NEW YORK—US stocks clawed back from early losses Monday, showing resiliency despite Greece’s stalled bid to obtain a crucial debt writedown from private creditors to avoid default.
Pulling back from opening losses of more than one percent, the major indexes ended only modestly in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 6.74 points (0.05 percent) to finish at 12,653.72 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 4.61 points (0.16 percent) to 2,811.94.
The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets, shed 3.31 points (0.25 percent) to 1,313.02.
Wall Street was gripped with “renewed default concerns toward Greece and Portugal,” Charles Schwab analysts said.
“The concerns are resurfacing as Greek debt-swap negotiations with its private creditors continued with no agreement thus far,” they said.
Traders awaited the outcome of a European Union summit aimed at containing the eurozone crisis and bolstering the region’s financial system.
Minutes before Wall Street markets closed, EU president Herman Van Rompuy announced that 25 of 27 EU nations had agreed to join a fiscal pact aimed at preventing future debt crises.
Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to sign up.
Dow component ExxonMobil dropped 0.4 percent to $85.49 after announcing over the weekend it would restructure its holdings in Japan by selling its refining and marketing operations to local partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu.
Shares in electrical-component maker Thomas & Betts soared 23.1 percent to $71.31. Swiss engineering giant ABB announced on Monday it would acquire the firm for $3.9 billion.
The Commerce Department reported personal spending was flat in December, while incomes rose 0.5 percent. Analysts noted the data had been largely captured in the gross domestic product (GDP) growth number published Friday.
On Friday stocks finished mixed after the government reported fourth-quarter GDP growth at 2.8 percent, well below the consensus forecast of 3.2 percent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.84 percent from 1.90 percent Friday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.98 percent from 3.06 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.