SerpApi.Org
Wall Street's major averages closed in the red on Monday ahead of some of the top technology names' earnings this week, while semiconductor stocks recovered and the oil markets rose.
The benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) ended -0.2%, while the heavy-tech Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) finished -0.1%, and the blue-chip Dow (DJI) closed -0.6%.
Investors await earnings from Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Tesla (TSLA), ServiceNow (NOW), International Business Machines (IBM), and Intel (INTC), among other big tech companies, for further clues on corporate earnings and the outlook for AI spending.
Many semiconductor names that struggled last week are up on Monday, including Intel (INTC), Western Digital (WDC), Sandisk (SNDK), Micron Technology (MU), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
In addition, AMD (AMD) closed +1.6% after the company announced an expanded partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) spanning AMD GPUs, CPUs, networking, and software on Microsoft Azure.
“Two themes continue to dominate the market, the oil-price-driven inflationary shock and the AI trade. In my view, oil will likely continue to rise, and this will likely continue to put pressure on stocks and bonds,” said Seeking Alpha analyst Damir Tokic.
“Today, tech is in a wait-and-see mode, while the rest of the market is selling off, but with rising oil and approaching tech earnings, the risk for the S&P 500 is to the downside,” Tokic added.
Tensions in the Middle East continued. The U.S. launched airstrikes targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday in retaliation for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members.
Crude oil futures (CL1:COM) were higher at $83, while Brent (CO1:COM) was $89 per barrel.
On the economic front, the June Leading Indicator Index slipped -0.2% month-over-month to 99.1 vs. -0.1% consensus, according to The Conference Board.
Over in the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) rose 5 basis points to 4.60%, while the 2-year Treasury yield (US2Y) was 4 basis points higher at 4.22%.
