All three major U.S. stock indexes struggled for direction, with the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow little unchanged and the tech-laden Nasdaq giving up an early lead to flip into negative territory. European stocks were also treading water ahead of potentially market-moving earnings reports, which include a stream of European banks aside from U.S. megacaps.
Wall Street was subdued and U.S. Treasury yields dipped on Monday as investors braced for a week of high-profile quarterly earnings and closely watched economic data.
All three major U.S. stock indexes struggled for direction, with the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow little unchanged and the tech-laden Nasdaq giving up an early lead to flip into negative territory.
"It’s a quiet opening not a lot of big movers," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
"There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market," Ghriskey added. ”There are a lot of big earnings this week and it’s keeping a lot of traders on the sidelines waiting to see those results."
Those big earnings include a spate of interest rate- sensitive megacap stocks, with Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com on the docket.
High-profile industrials General Motor Co, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman and Caterpillar are also on deck.
On the economics front, a spate of housing data, industrial output, 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.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21.78 points, or 0.06 percent, to 33,830.74, the S&P 500 lost 1.87 points, or 0.05 percent, to 4,131.65 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 46.03 points, or 0.38 percent, to 12,026.42.
European stocks were also treading water 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 rose 0.03 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.03 percent.
Emerging market stocks lost 0.39 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.34 percent lower, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.10 percent.
U.S. Treasury yields eased on Monday after the National Activity report from the Chicago Fed suggested that inflation and economic activity slowed in March.
Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 12/32 in price to yield 3.5261 percent, from 3.572 percent late on Friday.
The 30-year bond last rose 24/32 in price to yield 3.7348 percent, from 3.778 percent late on Friday.
The greenback weakened against a basket of world currencies as the euro gained strength and the yen fell ahead of the much anticipated Bank of Japan meeting.
The dollar index fell 0.26 percent, with the euro up 0.37 percent to $1.1028.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.24 percent versus the greenback at 134.47 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2459, up 0.23 percent on the day.
Crude prices seesawed as markets weighed concerns over rising interest rates and softening demand with the prospect of tightening supplies.
U.S. crude rose 1 percent to $78.65 per barrel and Brent was last at $82.24, up 0.96 percent on the day.
Gold remained range bound ahead of major economic data that would affect the Federal Reserve’s decision making at next month’s monetary policy meeting.
Spot gold was little changed, up just 0.01 percent to $1,983.19 an ounce.
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