Wall Street opens moderately lower

NEW YORK —  Stocks finished mostly higher Monday, although the Dow Jones industrials posted a modest decline, before a flurry of earnings reports that could determine whether the economy really is getting better.

Early signs were good. After trading ended Monday, Goldman Sachs Group reported a higher-than-expected profit of $1.7 billion and said it would sell $5 billion in stock to the public. The company had been scheduled to report results early today.

Goldman’s news was just the sort of favorable surprise traders were hoping for Monday as they snapped up financial stocks. The buying helped the Dow turn a 120-point deficit early in the session into a loss at the closing bell of 25.57 points, or 0.3%, to 8,057.81.

Broader indexes posted gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.17 points, or 0.3%, to 858.73, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.77 of a point, or 0.1%, to 1,653.31.

Investors are awaiting a rush of numbers this week, including results from banking giants JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup and from key companies in other industries, including Intel, Johnson & Johnson and General Electric.

Goldman jumped $5.82, or 4.7%, to $130.15 during the regular session. It gave up as much as $2.65 of that gain in extended trading after the earnings release. JPMorgan ended regular trading up 2.9%, while Citigroup soared 25% and Bank of America surged 15%.

Other market highlights:

* Shares of Boeing fell 5%, weighing on the Dow, after the aircraft maker said it would reduce jet production next year.

* Prescription benefit manager Express Scripts shot up 15% after saying it agreed to buy rival NextRx from health insurer WellPoint for $4.68 billion. WellPoint climbed 8%.