Apple buoys Wall Street, as European shares slip

Apple lifted US stocks on Monday after it announced regular dividends and share buy-backs, while benchmark US Treasury yields hit a near five-month high as investors sold safe-haven government bonds.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 6.51 points, or 0.05 percent, to end at 13,239.13, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 5.58 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,409.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 23.06 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 3,078.32.

European share prices slipped to snap a four-day winning streak and after stocks hit an eight-month high last week, with traders and fund managers reporting some rotation out of top-performing sectors such as carmakers into cheaper prospects such as telecoms.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed down 0.1 percent at 1,105.61 points in a choppy session, having been up as much as 1,107.57 and down as low as 1,100.76.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose for the fifth straight session, with investors scooping up straggling blue-chips as they sought further evidence of US economic recovery before pushing the index higher.

The Nikkei has gained 20 percent so far this year on the back of robust US economic data and liquidity boosting programmes by global central banks, taking the benchmark deep into "overbought" territory with its 14-day relative strength index at 78.8.

The Nikkei closed 0.1 percent higher at 10,141.99, after touching an 8-1/2-month intraday high of 10,172.64 and stretching its winning run to the longest since early July.