Stocks mixed: S&P 500 hits new closing high

U.S. stocks ended mixed Monday -- with the S&P 500 managing to set another closing high -- after Japanese markets tumbled on news that the world's second-largest economy unexpectedly slipped back into recession.

A 0.1% climb was enough to give the Standard & Poor's 500 a new record closing high, of 2041.32. That's about one and a half points above its previous high set in the previous session.

It marks the 42nd record close for the broad market index this year. And the S&P 500 has now registered an all-time closing high in seven of the past nine trading sessions.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.1%, a scant five points below its record closing high of 17,652.79 set last week. The Nasdaq composite lost.0.4%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index dropped 3% to 16, 973.80 after the government reported that the Japan's economy contracted at 1.6% annual pace in the July-September period.

The drops marks a second consecutive quarterly growth contraction for Japan. Economists had forecast Japan's economy would expand at about a 2% pace.

With Japan in recession and much of Europe stagnating, there are growing concerns over the state of the global economy, which is increasingly being supported by the U.S. Over the weekend, leaders from the 20 top developed and developing countries, a group known as the G-20, acknowledged as much and pledged to boost growth.

European markets started int he red but finished higher. Germany's DAX gained 0.6% and Britain's FTSE index rose 0.3%.

On Friday, Wall Street closed mixed, although the S&P 500 managed to eke out a small gain that gave it its 41st record closing high of the year.

Contributing: The Associated Press