Wall St slips, Apple breaks world record

Stocks on Wall Street are largely unchanged at the start of the trading week.

Technology and consumer discretionary stocks fell, the exception being Apple, which rose 1.8% to $US660, pushing its market capitalisation up to $US619 billion.

This made it the most valuable company ever, beating the previous historical record held by Microsoft, whose market value topped out at $US616.3 billion in December 1999.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.56 points to 13,271.64 at the close (8am NZ time). The blue-chip index capped its sixth-straight weekly advance on Friday.

The S&P 500 index was level at 1418.13. Shares tied to discretionary buying by consumers led declines, as Best Buy fell 7.01% and Lowe's tumbled 5.9%.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was down less than half a point to 3076.21.

Other markets:  Europe down
Banks and oil firms pulled down European stock markets as Germany's Bundesbank and the European Central Bank undercut hopes the ECB would soon undertake an aggressive programme of government bond purchases.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.5% to close at 271.50, its first loss in three sessions. The index rose 1.1% last week, marking the 11th straight week of gains.

The FTSE 100 index closed 0.5% lower at 5824.37.

Solid gains for Spanish and Italian stocks were erased.

Spain's IBEX 35 index dropped 1.2% to 7469.60, while Italy's FTSE MIB index gave up 1% to 14,971.88. Even so, yields on Spanish and Italian bonds fell sharply.

Commodities: Oil down, gold up
Oil prices traded slightly lower after a four-session climb but remained in a tight trading range.

Oil for September delivery fell 13USc to $US95.88 a barrel in New York.

Gold futures closed at their highest level since June 19 though they held to a tight trading range.

Gold for December delivery tacked on $US3.60, or 0.2%, to settle at $US1623 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: US dollar rises
The euro pared gains against the US dollar, easing after the ECB called "misleading" a news report that it was planning to cap government bond yields in the eurozone.

The euro had already weakened after the Bundesbank reiterated its opposition to a resumption of bond purchases by the ECB.

The euro dipped as low as $US1.2294 before rising to $US1.2343, up from $1.2335 late on Friday.

The dollar traded at ¥79.40 compared with ¥79.57 late on Friday, while the euro was at ¥98.033 from ¥98.13.

The pound fetched $US1.5701 from $US1.5696, while the dollar bought 0.9730 Swiss franc from 0.9738 franc.