Weak start on Wall Street

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks dipped early Monday as investors eyed higher oil prices and a downgrade of Dow component Boeing at the start of a busy week for company earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial average (down 23.71 to 12,541.82, Charts) lost 0.2 percent in the early going, and the broader S&P 500 (down 1.32 to 1,429.18, Charts) index was barely changed. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (up 8.10 to 2,451.31, Charts) composite lost 0.3 percent.

Stocks were mixed last week, with tech the weakest sector, as investors welcomed a mostly upbeat start to the earnings reporting period but showed caution after last year's big rally and a rebound in oil prices.

That hesitation remained in place Monday, as oil prices jumped back above $52 a barrel in electronic trading, in response to colder Northeast weather.

Pfizer (down $0.01 to $27.21, Charts), a Dow component, reported lower quarterly earnings that beat estimates on flat sales that were short of estimates. Shares inched lower.

Fellow Dow component Boeing (down $2.12 to $86.51, Charts) slumped more than 2 percent after Wachovia downgraded it to "market perform" from "outperform," Reuters reported.

In tech news, Sun Microsystems (down $0.02 to $5.77, Charts) will reportedly announce later Monday that it will start using chips from Intel (up $0.05 to $20.87, Charts) as well as the chips it currently uses from Advanced Micro Devices. The deal is seen as a setback to the smaller AMD (down $0.27 to $17.46, Charts), and sent shares lower.

Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.76 percent from 4.77 percent late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the yen and euro.

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