By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened mixed on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting a new record high. as problems with a major U.S. pipeline network forced energy prices and stocks higher.
The Colonial Pipeline Company, which operates one of the biggest pipeline networks in the U.S., said on Sunday that its main lines that carry fuel from the Gulf to to the east coast (as far up as New Jersey) were still out of commission after a cyberattack on Friday. It's not known how long the disruption of fuel supplies will last, but crude oil prices rose 0.5% in early trading on Monday.
By 9:40 AM ET (1340 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 184 points. or 0.5%, at 34,870, while the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.2%.
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) stock rose 1.8% and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock rose 1.7%. Cybersecurity stocks put in a mixed performance. however, despite the painful reminder of the need for strong cyber defenses. FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE) stock rose 3.3% but CrowdStrike lost 2.9%, while Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) stock was up only 0.7%. SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) stock was down 2.1%, while Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) stock was down 0.6%.
The market remains somewhat skittish after a weak jobs report on Friday that paradoxically prompted more buying, in anticipation of monetary policy staying supportive for longer. Such thoughts. and the awareness of more and more of the U.S. service sector reopening, have dominated any concerns about rising inflation.
Inflation hedges were in vogue in early trading, however, with mining giant Freeport-McMoran (NYSE:FCX) rising 3.0% to a 10-year high as Copper Futures and Iron ore Futures raced higher in the Asian session. U.S.Steel (NYSE:X) stock also rose 7.3% while Vale (NYSE:VALE) ADRs rose 3.4%
Elsewhere, cryptocurrency-themed stocks struggled after Elon Musk, one of their highest-profile advocates, allowed himself to take part in a skit that appeared to mock DogeCoin on Saturday Night Live.DogeCoin itself lost over 30%, while Square (NYSE:SQ) - which derives much of its revenue from processing Bitcoin-related payments, fell 4.8%. Musk's carmaker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw its stock slide over 3%, also hurt by signs of the global chip shortage forcing up its input costs. The company said it is raising prices for the Model Y and Model 3 accordingly.
Elsewhere, there were contrasting fortunes for biotech companies: BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) stock rose 2.9% after announcing it will set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore, while Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) fell 7.0% after The Washington Post reported that it's unlikely to file for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration before June at the earliest.