Wall Street opens flat as oil prices surrender gains

Wall Street was little changed on Monday after Friday's lackluster US jobs report suggested the Federal Reserve will raise rates just once this year, while cautious investors allowed for only a short-lived rally in oil prices.

Crude prices surrendered early gains made after wildfires in Canada hit supplies, and were down 1.1%.

US stocks broke a three-day losing streak and closed higher on Friday after investors focused on the positive aspects of a generally disappointing April jobs report.

A bigger-than-expected drop in China's imports and exports in April also pointed to weak demand in the world's second-biggest economy.

In the two weeks to Friday, mixed US economic data and uncertainty about the path of future interest rate hikes had put a dampener on a stock market rally that had seen the S&P gain about 15% from its February lows.

A Reuters survey following the jobs report showed that Wall Street's top banks have all but written off the chance of a June rate increase. Most now see the rate hike coming in September.

"While the fundamentals for US growth continue to be good, uncertainty and risks remain," Charles Evans, president of the Bank of Chicago told a conference in London on Monday.

"In my opinion, the continuation of 'wait and see' monetary policy response is appropriate to ensure that economic growth continues," he said.

Bank of Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET in Minnesota.

At 9:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 20.4 points, or 0.12%, at 17,720.23, the S&P 500 was down 0.65 points, or 0.03%, at 2,056.49 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.13 points, or 0%, at 4,736.29.

Six of the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with the health index's 0.76% rise leading the advancers.

Shares of Lending Club, operator of the world's biggest online lending platform, fell 22% to $5.50 in early trading after Renaud Laplanche resigned as CEO and chairman following a board review.

Krispy Kreme jumped 23.7% to $20.86 after agreeing to be taken private for $1.35 billion.

Baidu shares were down 2.2% at $170.17 after regulators in China asked the company to rein in paid-for ads following the death of a student who had sought treatment for cancer through the company's search engine.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 923 to 668. On the Nasdaq, 1,190 issues fell and 1,031 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed one new 52-week high and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded seven new highs and six new lows.