Dow, S&P end lower but Apple, Facebook lift Nasdaq

Strong gains by Apple, Facebook and other key tech stocks sent the Nasdaq exchange higher Monday while the Dow and S&P 500 sagged.

The US markets were generally feeble on the first session after a slow Thanksgiving holiday week, with the jury still out over how strong the crucial Black Friday holiday sales went for retailers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 42.31 points (0.33 percent) at 12,967.37.

The broad-market S&P 500 lost 2.86 (0.20 percent) at 1,406.29, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 9.93 (0.33 percent) to 2,976.78.

A pumped-up Facebook soared 8.1 percent to $25.94 after analysts at longtime skeptics Bernstein Research gave the company a "like," setting a $33 target for the price.

That, combined with Apple's 3.2 percent surge to $589.53, drove the Nasdaq's gain.

Retailers dependent on physical stores were mostly lower, with Walmart losing 0.4 percent, Costco 1.7 percent, and Target 2.6 percent.

The first weekend of the holiday sales period, kicked off with last week's Black Friday shopping bonanza, was strong, businesses said, but many were reported concerned that consumer spending might not be sustained over the next month.

But online retailers were higher, Amazon gaining 1.6 percent and eBay adding 4.9 percent, after Friday's online sales topped $1 billion for the first time.

Among the Dow blue chips, Coca-Cola topped losers with a 1.5 percent fall while Hewlett-Packard led a handful of gainers, adding 2.4 percent.

Bond prices rose. The 10-year US Treasury yield dropped to 1.66 percent from 1.69 percent Friday, and the 30-year fell to 2.80 percent from 2.83 percent.

Bond prices and yields move inversely.