NEW YORK - US stocks remained under pressure Monday with the major indexes mostly lower after a drubbing last week that sparked turmoil on global markets.
After a modest opening rise, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 56.16 points (0.56 percent) to 10,031.35 while the Nasdaq managed to hold a gain of 2.56 points (0.13 percent) to 1,910.71 at 1540 GMT.
The Standard and Poor's 500 broad-market index dipped 1.02 points (0.09 percent) to 1,141.60.
Global markets were in turmoil following heavy losses last week on Wall Street and tensions between China and Japan.
A drop in crude oil futures below 50 dollars a barrel helped the mood. But a negative factor was a third weekend of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China.
Ties between East Asia's two most powerful nations have rapidly approached a nadir after Japan approved a nationalist textbook that glossed over wartime atrocities. They have been further ruffled by Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Some said the the mood remained remained cautious on Wall Street after the main indexes slumped to fresh lows for 2005 last week.
"It seems as if we have re-entered the bizarre world in which every piece of news must be interpreted as being bad for equity investors," said market strategist Tobias Levkovich at Smith Barney.
"One can almost feel the growing and increasingly tangible anxiety amongst investors as red ink is spreading across the spectrum of equity asset managers.
"Some renewed sense of earnings optimism is probably needed to turn markets around at this juncture since the damage to investor psyche is quite meaningful at this stage."
David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch, said "The overall technical market condition right now is very tenuous ... both the Dow industrials and Dow transports broke their 2005 lows late last week, a traditional confirming 'sell signal' barometer."
But Alfred Goldman, chief strategist at AG Edwards sees light at the end of the tunnel.
"The pre-conditions are in place for stocks to bottom and reverse to the upside," he said. "Stocks are short-term oversold after the three-day, 420-point decline" for the Dow blue chip index.
Among firms in focus for earnings, Dow component 3M tumbled 4.24 or 5.2 percent to 76.62 after the maker of Scotch tape and various industrial products reported earnings better than most forecasts but sales growth than disappointed Wall Street.
Bank of America however climbed 45 cents to 44.73 after it reported a 75 percent jump in net earnings.
IBM, which plunged eight percent Friday after a disappointing earnings report, rebounded slightly with a gain of 10 cents to 76.80.
Software maker Adobe Systems tumbled 6.98 or 11.5 percent to 53.68 after announcing a 3.4 billion dollar deal for rival software maker Macromedia, up 2.69 or eight percent to 36.14.
Intel rose 21 cents to 22.33 on a positive research note from Wells Fargo as the world's biggest chipmaker unveiled its new WiMax chip for long-range wireless applications.
Bonds remained well bid amid the caution on stocks. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 4.239 percent from 4.271 percent Friday and that on the 30-year bond dropped to 4.593 percent from 4.626 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
04/18/2005 16:01 GMT