United States stocks decline on falling oil prices

The National Index posted a month-over-month gain of 0.2 percent increase in May, while the 10-City and 20-City Composites recorded decreases of 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Oil prices are down for a sixth straight day and have fallen almost 8%.

“Earnings are the key this week, but there’s also the Fed, the Bank of Japan and the Democratic National Convention, so you have a lot of things that go right or wrong”, said John Canally, chief economic strategist at LPL Financial, which oversees about $479 billion in Boston. “In our view, this is setting the stage for another hike while making it clear that it is not imminent”.

Technology shares were among the best performers in July.

USA stocks opened unchanged Thursday, as disappointing earnings from companies like Ford and ConocoPhillips and mixed data kept confidence at bay.

In Asia, shares declined on Tuesday in morning trade, led by Japanese equities, amid fresh strength in the yen after a report indicated Tokyo’s highly anticipated stimulus package may not live up to expectations.

“We do think the U.S.is coming down”.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 1.36%, while the Topix dropped 1.35%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which has lagged behind the two other indexes throughout the year, rose 7.15 points, or 0.1%, to 5162.13 on Friday and 6.6% for the month.

European markets were lower as the broad Stoxx Europe 600 stock index was down 1%.