Stocks Down Despite Media Rally

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are mostly lower Monday morning as Facebook and other technology companies open the week with losses. Media companies are rising following a report that Charter Communications might be bought by a Japanese technology company, while cable companies Scripps Networks and Discovery Communications agree to combine. High-dividend companies are down and banks and industrial companies are trading higher.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index was unchanged at 2,471 as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average continued to build on its record highs as it gained 60 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,889. The Nasdaq composite lost 10 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,364. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sagged 5 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,424.

WHAT'S ON? TV: Charter Communications climbed after Bloomberg reported that Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is considering buying Charter. The report Sunday said that SoftBank initially wanted to combine Charter with Sprint, but after Charter rejected that idea, the technology company may buy Charter outright. Shares of the cable company jumped $17.96, or 4.9 percent, to $388.22, and investors value Charter at about $100 billion. A little more than a year ago Charter bought Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks for $67 billion.

Scripps Networks Interactive rose further after it agreed to be bought by rival cable channel company Discovery Communications for close to $12 billion. Scripps picked up 71 cents to $87.62 and it's up 31 percent in two weeks on reports the companies would combine. Discovery Networks took the largest loss on the S&P 500 index as it fell $1.54, or 5.7 percent, to $25.26.

Elsewhere, Comcast added $1.02, or 2.6 percent, to $40.55.

TECH TROUBLE: Technology companies, including some of the most valuable companies on the market, struggled. Facebook lost $2.11, or 1.2 percent, to $170.34. The social media network leaped 8.6 percent last week following a strong second-quarter report. Alphabet, Google's parent company, shed $7.55 to $950.78 and cloud computing company Citrix Systems gave up $1, or 1.3 percent, to $78.71.

BANK ON IT: Financial companies advanced in early trading. Wells Fargo rose 53 cents, or 1 percent, to $53.83 and investment bank Morgan Stanley rose 29 cents to $46.95. Investment management company Invesco gained 23 cents to $34.59.

EARLY LEADERS: Health care and industrial companies also rose. Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb jumped $1.27, or 2.3 percent, to $56.54 to regain some of its losses from Friday and Biogen added $2.60 to $290.04. Boeing continued its rapid ascent and added $2.80, or 1.2 percent, to $244.07. The aerospace company's stock is up 57 percent over the last year. Engine maker Cummins edged up $1.81, or 1.1 percent, to $169.03.

ENERGY: The price of oil was lower after its best week of the year. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 43 cents to $49.28 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 38 cents to $51.84 a barrel in London. U.S. crude rose almost 9 percent last week to reach its highest price since late May.

BONDS: Bond prices dipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.30 percent from 2.29 percent. High-dividend stocks like phone companies and real estate investment trusts mostly fell.

CURRENCIES: The dollar slipped to 110.47 yen from 110.60 yen. The euro fell to $1.1753 from $1.1760.

OVERSEAS: Germany's DAX gained 0.3 percent and the CAC 40 of France added 0.1 percent. The FTSE 100 in Britain gained 0.3 percent. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.2 percent and the Kospi in South Korea finished little changed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 1.3 percent.

(BE)