Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Monday, giving back some of the big gains the market notched last week on hopes for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 fell 0.4% and remains near its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.8% lower after setting a record high on Friday. The Nasdaq composite closed 0.2% lower.
The selling was widespread, with health care stocks among the biggest drags on the market. Pfizer fell 2.9% and Eli Lilly and Co. slid 2.3%.
Gains for several big technology stocks helped temper the market’s losses. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, rose 1.2%. Technology heavyweight Nvidia rose 1%.
Treasury yields rose in the bond market following their big drop on Friday amid expectations that the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate in September.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.25% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 3.73% from 3.70% late Friday.
“Markets are just digesting Friday’s news and kind of the increasing odds that we’re going to see a September rate cut from the Fed,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise.
Wall Street is still overwhelmingly betting that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 84% chance that the central bank will trim its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.
The Fed has been maintaining rates at their current level since the end of 2024 amid worries about inflation heating up as tariffs work their way through the economy to businesses and households.
The central bank has grown increasingly concerned about the state of the job market in the U.S. Its two main focuses are keeping inflation low and supporting conditions for strong employment.
Recent signals have shown that the job market is seemingly stagnating and could possibly weaken, which could prompt the central bank to cut rates. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier, helping to spur more investment and spending, but that could also potentially fuel inflation.
So far, consumer confidence remains mostly solid, though concerns about inflation linger. Wall Street and the Fed will get an update on consumer confidence in the U.S. when business group The Conference Board releases its monthly survey for August on Tuesday. Economists expect overall confidence to remain mostly unchanged from July.
The bigger update will come on Friday, when the government releases an inflation report that is closely monitored by the Fed. An update on inflation earlier in August showed that consumer prices remained modestly higher in July, compared with a year ago. The government’s report on Friday, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is expected to show a similar result.
Economists expect the PCE to show that prices rose 2.6% in July, compared with a year ago. That’s unchanged from the rate in June and hovering just above the Fed’s preferred target of 2%.
Among other big movers on Wall Street Monday: Keurig Dr Pepper, which sank 11.5% after saying it will buy Peet’s Coffee owner JDE Peet’s in a deal worth about $18 billion.
Railroad stocks also fell following a report that Warren Buffett informed CSX management that he is not looking to buy the railroad. Shares in CSX fell 5.1%. Union Pacific dropped 2% and Norfolk Southern gave up 2.5%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 27.59 points to 6,439.32. The Dow lost 349.27 points to close at 45,282.47. The Nasdaq slid 47.24 points to 21,449.29.
European markets mostly closed lower after Asian markets finished lower overnight.
Wall Street has a few more corporate earnings updates this week, essentially wrapping up the latest round of profit reports and forecasts from U.S. companies.
Nvidia will report its latest results on Wednesday. The company's role as a key supplier of chips for artificial intelligence and its heavy weighting give it outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market. It has been a driving force for much of the market’s gains, along with several other tech giants with pricey stock values.
“There’s more doubt around the AI theme building,” Saglimbene said. “So I think what NVIDIA has to say is going to be very impactful for not only the whole AI space, but the broader markets in general, because it’s such a large holding in the major indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.”
On Thursday, Wall Street will get earnings updates from electronics retailer Best Buy and discount retailer Dollar General. Retailers are being closely watched as Wall Street tries to gauge the current and potential future impact on costs and prices from tariffs.
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