week intraday highs. Declines in commodities pressured European stocks to turn lower Monday, remaining more than 15 percent below their 52-week highs. Helping U.S. stocks stabilize overnight was news the People's Bank of China raised the midpoint fix for the yuan against the U.S. dollar. Weakness in the yuan and concerns about further devaluation caused global stocks to tumble last week. There were no U.S. economic reports Monday. The U.S. dollar was mixed versus other major currencies. Gold futures for February delivery fell $1.70 to $1,096.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper futures also fell about 2 percent. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.75, or 5.3 percent, to $31.41 a barrel, near a 12-year low. In London, Brent crude futures also fell below $32. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 52.12, or 0.3 percent, to 16,398.57. Twenty-three of the index's 30 components rose, led by technology firms Cisco and Intel, whose shares each rose more than 2 percent. Decliners were led by chemical company DuPont and heavy machinery maker Caterpillar, whose shares plunged 3.2 and 2.8 percent, respectively. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.64, or 0.1 percent, to 1,923.67. Consumer staples led seven sectors higher, while energy was the weakest of three declining sectors, dropping 2 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 5.64, or 0.1 percent, to 4,637.99. The index briefly traded down 1 percent in the afternoon before recovering most losses. Shares of Apple fell more than 1.5 percent.
