Dow starts off week with yet another losing session

NEW YORK -- It was just another downer Monday for stock investors on Wall Street.

For the seventh-consecutive Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average started the week with a decline, just the latest statistical proof that investors remain wary of stocks.

The Dow fell 49.88 points, or 0.4%, to 12,727.21. The blue-chip index fell for the seventh time in the past eight trading days, as investors reacted to weak retail sales in June, when sales fell 0.5% vs. May.

Investors were also hesitant to get aggressive ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's two-day testimony before Congress which kicks off today. Investors will be listening closely to see if Bernanke has warmed to the idea of providing the weakening economy with another jolt of monetary stimulus to keep the recovery from faltering.

Other major indexes were also weak. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 3.14 points, or 0.2%, to 1353.64. And the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite declined 11.82 points, or 0.4%, to 2896.94.

It was yet another risk-off day, as investors gravitated to the perceived safety of U.S. government bonds, where the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sank to a record closing low of 1.46%.

Big news came after the bell, when Internet pioneer Yahoo announced that Marissa Mayer, a longtime executive at rival Google, will be its new CEO, replacing interim chief executive Ross Levinsohn. In after-hours trading, Yahoo shares were up more than 2% after closing 10 cents lower at $15.65 in regular trading. Yahoo reports earnings today.

Other key earnings reports set for release today include banking giant Goldman Sachs, soft-drink icon Coca-Cola and computer-chip maker Intel.

The second-quarter earnings season has gotten off to a lukewarm start. Of the 33 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index that have reported, 20 have topped expectations. That 61% beat rate is in line with the historical average of 62%, S&P Capital IQ says.

Shares of Citigroup Monday rose 16 cents, or 0.6%, to $26.81 after the bank beat analysts' profit expectations by 10 cents a share.

It's a busy week for earnings, with 80 S&P 500 companies scheduled to let Wall Street know how much money they made last quarter. Earnings for the S&P 500 are on track for a decline of 1.69%, which would mark the poorest performance since the second quarter of 2009.