Investing.com — U.S. stocks traded in a muted manner Monday, starting a holiday-shortened week in a cautious fashion as investors awaited more economic data as well as comments from a number of Federal Reserve officials for clues of future monetary policy.
By 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 120 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 traded 5 points, or 0.1%, lower, while NASDAQ Composite rose 5 points, or 0.1%.
The markets are closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday, and come off a mixed week, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its third losing week in four, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched their seventh up week in the last eight, buoyed by the recent rally in tech.
Uncertainty over Fed moves
The divergence of the performances of the main indices is an indication of the uncertainty over where the stock markets go next, which is largely based on investors being unsure when the Federal Reserve will start its rate-cutting cycle.
The main economic release this week will be Tuesday’s retail sales for May, as investors try to get a handle on the strength of the U.S. economy, and thus the likely timing of Fed rate cuts.
Economists are expecting retail sales to have risen 0.3% month-on-month, after the figure came in at 0.0% in April.
There are several Fed officials due to speak this week, including New York Fed President John Williams, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin.
Kashkari on Sunday said, in an interview on CBS, it’s a “reasonable prediction” that the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates once this year, waiting until December to do it.
Activist investor targets Autodesk
In the corporate sector, the likes of Lennar (NYSE:LEN), Kroger (NYSE:KR), Darden Restaurants (NYSE:DRI) and CarMax (NYSE:KMX) will report quarterly earnings this week.
Elsewhere, Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) rose 3.4% after the Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Starboard Value has acquired a stake worth approximately $500 million in the design-software manufacturer, and is now advocating for changes.
Video game retailer, and meme favorite, GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock rose 0.2% ahead of its annual meeting later Monday, after being postponed last week due to a technical glitch resulting from high demand from shareholders.
On the flip side. AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) stock fell over 11% after the entertainment company announced a $125 million convertible offering.
Crude continues to gain
Oil prices rose Monday, continuing the previous week’s upbeat note despite some bumpy data out of China, the world’s biggest crude importer.
At 09:35 ET, Brent oil futures had fallen 0.2% to $82.45 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures dipped 0.2% to $77.89 per barrel.
The crude benchmarks recorded a winning week last week, their first in four weeks, buoyed by expectations that the Northern Hemisphere summer vacation season will boost fuel demand this summer.
This optimism has overshadowed lower-than-predicted Chinese industrial production figures in May, released over the weekend, which pointed to an uneven recovery in the world’s biggest oil importer.
