By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street shuffled to a mixed close on Monday, with interest rate-sensitive momentum shares weighing on the Nasdaq and U.S. Treasury yields dipping as investors braced for a week of high-profile quarterly earnings and closely watched economic data.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow ended the session modestly higher while Microsoft Corp, Tesla Inc and other megacaps pulled the Nasdaq into the red.
“People are unsure about what this week holds, especially when it comes to earnings,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. “There’s a lot to be cautious about and today reflects that. There’s not a lot happening.”
Earnings this week include a spate of potential market movers, including tech and tech-adjacent Alphabet Inc, Microsoft, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
High-profile industrials General Motor Co, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman and Caterpillar Inc are also on deck.
On the economics front, a spate of housing data, industrial output and the Commerce Department’s first stab at first-quarter GDP will be capped on Friday by the closely watched and wide-ranging Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report, which tracks income, spending and inflation.
“Everyone’s looking forward to PCE on Friday, given that’s the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 66.44 points, or 0.2%, to 33,875.4, the S&P 500 gained 3.52 points, or 0.09%, to 4,137.04 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 35.25 points, or 0.29%, to 12,037.20.
European stocks closed essentially unchanged ahead of potentially market-moving earnings reports, which include a stream of European banks aside from U.S. megacaps.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.01% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.11%.
Emerging market stocks lost 0.35%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.35% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.10%.
U.S. Treasury yields fell as market participants appeared to grow increasingly jittery about the approaching debt ceiling deadline.
Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 18/32 in price to yield 3.5034%, from 3.572% late on Friday.
The 30-year bond last rose 34/32 in price to yield 3.718%, from 3.778% late on Friday.
The greenback and the yen weakened in advance of the United States and Japan’s respective central bank policy meetings. Financial markets have priced in a 91.4% likelihood that the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week will culminate in another 25 basis-point interest rate hike.
The dollar index fell 0.45%, with the euro up 0.51% at $1.1043.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.08% versus the greenback at 134.28 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2483, up 0.43% on the day.
Crude prices seesawed but turned higher later in the session on optimism over strengthening Chinese demand.
U.S. crude rose 1.14% to settle at $78.76 per barrel and Brent settled at $82.73, up 1.31% on the day.
Gold edged higher ahead of major economic data that would affect the Federal Reserve’s decision making at next month’s monetary policy meeting.
Spot gold added 0.3% to $1,989.14 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
