Monday’s trading session ended with mixed moves. The Dow and S&P 500 closed in red territory while the Nasdaq added some points. Alcoa, Boeing, Bank of America and Travelers led the way down on the Dow. A jump in Apple bolstered the Nasdaq’s ascent. Meanwhile, Caterpillar stepped up today following the release of better-than-expected quarterly data. Fourth-quarter profit hit $1.91 a share, excluding a non-cash charge of 87 cents a share, on revenue of $16.08 billion. Economists had expected earnings of $1.70 a share, on revenue of $16.12 billion. In other news, pending home sales decreased in December. The National Association of Realtor’s pending home sales index fell 4.3% to 101.7 last month after climbing 1.7% in November. Economists expected pending home sales to rise by 0.3% in December. On another note, durable goods orders increased in December. New orders for manufactured goods moved up by 4.6% from November’s 0.7% uptick. Discounting transportation, new orders rose by 1.3%. Economists had anticipated a lesser gain of 2% for December’s orders.
