Wall Street closes mixed with strong data, oil decline

NEW YORK (AA) – Wall Street closed mixed Monday as falling crude oil prices were balanced with strong personal spending data.

Oil prices fell more than 4 percent after OPEC's plan to limit production came under scrutiny by investors.

Iran, Libya and Nigeria have been exempted from any deal to curb output, due to recovery in those countries from sanctions and internal security issues that have limited oil production.

They, however, could be joined by OPEC's second biggest producer, Iraq, after Baghdad last week asked to be exempt from the deal as it fights Daesh militants.

At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $46.66 a barrel -- a 4.2 percent decline. International benchmark Brent crude was at $48.49 -- a 4.3 percent fall.

Personal spending increased 0.5 percent in September, from the previous month, according to the Commerce Department.

Not only did the data beat market expectations of a 0.4 percent gain, but it also posted the strongest increase in the last three months.

The fugures, however, were not enough to keep the indexes in positive territory.

The Dow lost 18 points to end the day at 18,142. The S&P and the Nasdaq each finished flat with less than a one point decrease, at 2,126 and 5,189, respectively.

The Dow fell 0.9 percent in October, the S&P lost 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq was down 2.3 percent.

October also marked the third consecutive month the Dow and the S&P finished with losses.