Stocks mixed; energy sector smacked by oil's drop
U.S. stocks mostly declined on Monday, with Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the blue chips hit as the price of crude fell to a more than two-year low.

"We're still reconciling with the performance of October," said Jim Dunigan managing executive, investments at PNC Wealth Management, who attributed positive earnings as helping pull the market out of its funk in the middle of the month. "At least for today, the market is going to wait and see what Americans do at the polls," Dunigan added of Tuesday's midterm elections.



Of the 366 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings for the third quarter, just over 75 percent have beaten expectations, while 58 percent have posted revenue that topped estimates, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.



Monday's economic reports had the Institute for Supply Management's gauge of manufacturing rising to 59 in October, matching August as the best reading since March 2011.



Separate data had construction spending falling 0.4 percent in September.



Sapient rallied after a French advertising company, Publicis Groupe, said it would pay $3.7 billion to buy the company. Covance jumped as Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings said it would purchase the supplier of research services for drug companies for about $6.1 billion.