Stocks closed mixed on the lightest volume trading day of 2013, as energy and retail shares underperformed and investors reassessed a rally that’s lifted benchmark indexes 6% this year. Energy stocks led the decline even as crude futures traded higher and refiners held onto recent gains. Goldman Sachs cut its recommendation to neutral from overweight on a three-month basis growing cautious on global equities in the near term. Also, news reports said officials from the G-7 continue to weigh the possibility of issuing a statement aimed at averting a so-called currency war. Apple added 1.0% following reports that the company may be developing a watch-like device that would run on the company’s iOS operating system. AOL rose 7.4% after RBC Capital Markets raised its rating to outperform from sector perform, citing AOL’s upbeat earnings. Zynga rose 7.0% after director Brett Ratner said he is working with a Canadian production company to produce a TV version of “Farmville” game title. Google lost 0.38% after chairman Eric Schmidt said in a filing on Friday that he is planning to sell about 42% of his holdings in the company. BlackBerry fell 4.6% on reports that Home Depot will replace 10,000 BlackBerry smartphones used by its store managers and corporate staff with Apple iPhones.
