Slow Japan growth nudges US markets lower

US stock markets closed in the red after listless trade Monday, with only poor Japanese data making a dent in action slowed by the boreal-summer holiday. At the closing bell the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 37.90 points (0.29 percent) at 13,170.05. The broader S&P 500-stock index lost 1.67 (0.12 percent) to 1,404.20, while the tech-rich Nasdaq was up 1.66 points (0.05 percent) to 3,022.52. Earlier the Japanese government said the country's April-June GDP grew 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, sharply weaker than market expectations of a 0.7 percent increase. "Japan gets less attention these days but is still the world's third-largest economy," said Dick Green of Briefing.com. In individual share action only four of the 30 Dow components traded in the black. American Express led the way, rising 0.6 percent. Walt Disney (0.4 percent), Kraft Foods (0.2 percent) and 3M (0.1 percent) all saw modest gains. Alcoa was down 1.6 percent while Cisco Systems fell 1.3 percent. Manchester United shares dipped slightly at the open, but quickly passed the $14 price seen at the initial offering on Friday. At the end of the day they hit $14.15 a share, up just over one percent. US bond prices were largely unchanged. The 10-year Treasury yield was flat at 1.65 percent; the 30-year was up slightly 2.74 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.