Stocks start the week sideways ahead of trade talks

Financial Markets Wall Street

FILE - In this June 20, 2019, file photo traders gather at a post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as they wait for the Slack Technologies IPO to begin trading. Stocks are off to a mixed start on Wall Street on Monday, June 24, as gains for technology companies are offset by losses in health care and other sectors. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks moved sideways in early trading Monday on Wall Street after notching their third straight weekly win.

Investors eased into trading ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between the U.S. and China's leaders later this week. The world's two largest economies have been embroiled in a trade war that has taken the market on a volatile roller-coaster ride this year and Wall Street is hoping for a deal.

Technology and financial stocks did most of the heavy lifting and acted as a counterweight for losses in the health care and energy sectors.

Microsoft and Apple both made solid gains. Oracle and Broadcom rose 1.3%. Goldman Sachs rose 1.2% and State Street rose 1.7%. Banks including Bank of America and Citigroup also moved higher.

Health care stocks led the losers as pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb and its buyout target Celgene stumbled.

Energy companies were also among the early losers. Occidental Petroleum fell 1.2% and Marathon Petroleum fell 1.3%.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index rose slightly as 10:10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56 points, or 0.2%, to 26,777. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.

FOCUSING ON TRADE: Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping plan to meet at the Group of 20 summit in Japan, which starts Friday. Wall Street is once again hoping that the two sides can find a path to making a deal that will end their trade war.

Uncertainty over the dispute and its potential impact on global economic growth sent the broader market on a bumpy ride during the second quarter as the tensions escalated. The S&P 500 reached a record high last week that gave it the final push to recovering all of its losses from May.

The two sides are in a stalemate after 11 rounds of talks that have failed to overcome U.S. concerns over China's acquisition of American technology and its massive trade surplus. China denies forcing U.S. companies to hand over trade secrets and says the surplus is much smaller than it appears.

HIGH ROLLER: Caesars surged 14.3% after Eldorado Resorts said it will buy the casino operator for $17.3 billion in a cash-and-stock deal.

The deal creates a casino giant with about 60 casinos and resorts in 16 states under a single name. Caesars has been struggling since emerging from bankruptcy in 2017. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn took an enormous stake in the company and pushed for big changes. Eldorado fell 8.2%.

COSTLY TREATMENT: Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 6% after it said it would divest a blockbuster drug in order to complete its buyout of Celgene. Celgene fell 4.2 %

The company is trying to gain Federal Trade Commission approval for its $74 billion buyout of Celgene as it tries to beef up its portfolio of drugs. Bristol-Myers said it is willing to divest the psoriasis treatment Otezla as part of a push toward regulatory approval.

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