U.S. stocks closed mostly lower Monday as oil futures snapped a seven-session win streak to finish sharply in negative territory. Losses in West Texas Intermediate oil trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange for September delivery , pushed the contract down 3% at $47.05 a barrel. The October contract is now WTI’s front-month contract. Energy shares on the S&P 500 followed oil’s lead, falling 0.9%–suffering the worst drop among the S&P 500’s 10 sectors. Overall, the large-cap benchmark ended about a point lower at 2,182, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off 23 points, or 0.1% , at 18,529, while the Nasdaq Composite Index edged 0.1% higher at 5,244. Thin trading and reluctance to make big bets ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday, made for muted trading action. In merger news, Pfizer Inc. confirmed plans to buy biotech firm Medivation Inc. in a deal valued at $14 billion.
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