Major US stock markets closed lower than zero on Monday, as Apple pulled the market slightly down after lowering the rating.

Shares of iPhone maker (AAPL) declined after brokerage company Pacific Crest lowered their rating to "Together with the market" from "Better than the market".

In addition, as it became known from the report from Markit, the growth of business activity in the US services sector slightly accelerated in May, reaching a three-month high. This extended the current period of activity growth to 15 months. New orders also grew at a faster pace and rose as much as possible from January. As a result, firms increased the number of jobs, while the growth rate accelerated to a three-month high. Inflation in purchasing prices has moderately weakened, while prices charged by service providers in the United States have increased more rapidly. The seasonally adjusted index of business activity continued to hold above the neutral level of 50.0 in May, reaching a level of 53.6, compared with 53.1 in April, which marked the largest increase in total activity since February.

At the same time, the index of business activity in the US services sector, calculated by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), fell to 56.9 points in May from 57.5 in April. According to the forecast, the figure should drop to 57 points. The ISM said that the expansion of activity in the service sector has been fixed for the 88th month in a row.

Oil prices fell by about 1% on Monday, reacting to fears that the severance of ties with Qatar, announced by the largest oil exporter - Saudi Arabia - and other Arab states could prevent a global deal to reduce oil production.

Most components of the DOW index closed in positive territory (16 out of 30). Most fell shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL, -1.04%). Leader of growth were shares of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT, + 0.94%).

Almost all sectors of the S & P index recorded a decline. The conglomerate sector fell most of all (-0.5%). Only the technological sector showed growth (+ 0.2%).

At closing:

DJIA -0.10% 21.184.38 -21.91

Nasdaq -0.16% 6,295.68 -10.12

S & P -0.12% 2.436.11 -2.96

U.S. stock-index futures were flat as investors appeared to have shrugged off the weekend attacks in London, while waiting for several important macroeconomic releases.

Stocks:

Nikkei 20,170.82 -6.46 -0.03%

Hang Seng 25,862.99 -61.06 -0.24%

Shanghai 3,091.53 -14.01 -0.45%

S&P/ASX 5,754.87 -33.25 -0.57%

FTSE 7,528.47 -19.16 -0.25%

CAC 5,301.40 -42.01 -0.79%

DAX -

Crude $47.25 (-0.86%)

Gold $1,283.40 (+0.25%)

(company / ticker / price / change ($/%) / volume)

Apple (AAPL) downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at Pacific Crest

Exxon Mobil (XOM) upgraded to Sector Outperform from Sector Perform at Scotia Howard Weil

European stocks trimmed earlier gains to ended with a small advance on Friday after U.S. jobs data fell short of expectations and raised questions about the strength of the world's largest economy. The pullback came after the closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report showed 138,000 jobs were added to the economy in May, far below the consensus forecast of 185,000. The unemployment rate, however, fell to 4.3% from 4.4%, the lowest since 2001.

U.S. stock-market indexes closed at records Friday, led by gains for technology shares as investors looked past a weaker-than-expected May jobs report. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.37% closed up 9.01 points, or 0.4%, at a record 2,349.07, after touching an intraday record at 2,440.23. Tech, with a 1% rise, was the top performing sector. Energy shares finished down 1.2%, largely following oil prices. Financials stocks were another area of weakness on Wall Street, with the sector trading 0.4% lower.

Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region were stable early Monday after the latest terror attacks in London, though benchmarks in Korea and Australia succumbed to profit taking ahead of elections in the U.K.

(index / closing price / change items /% change)

Nikkei +317.25 20177.28 +1.60%

TOPIX +26.06 1612.20 +1.64%

Hang Seng +114.83 25924.05 +0.44%

CSI 300 -11.23 3486.51 -0.32%

Euro Stoxx 50 +24.80 3591.82 +0.70%

FTSE 100 +3.86 7547.63 +0.05%

DAX +158.02 12822.94 +1.25%

CAC 40 +24.74 5343.41 +0.47%

DJIA +62.11 21206.29 +0.29%

S&P 500 +9.01 2439.07 +0.37%

NASDAQ +58.97 6305.80 +0.94%

S&P/TSX -27.16 15442.75 -0.18%