NEW YORK: US stock indexes treaded water on Monday after last week’s blockbuster jobs data soothed some fears about an economic slowdown, while chipmaker Nvidia’s warning on revenue dragged the information technology sector lower.
Investors remained cautious as the payrolls data added to expectations of a hawkish US Federal Reserve, with focus now on consumer prices data on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 has bounced back 14% from its mid-June lows, but investors fear that signs of persistent inflation this week could further bolster the Fed’s case for aggressive monetary policy tightening.
“While it’s clear the Fed needs to continue tightening policy, there are still about six weeks until the next meeting and we remind investors that economic data can change very quickly,” said Robert Schein, chief investment officer, Blanke Schein Wealth Management.
“The CPI data will help to confirm if the Fed’s tightening efforts have been successful in starting to tame inflation or if continued Fed tightening is needed.” US rate futures have priced in a 67.5% chance of a 75-basis-point hike at the Fed’s September meeting, up from about 41% before payrolls data on Friday beat market expectations.
The information technology sector fell 0.9% after chipmaker Nvidia Corp dropped 7.7% on saying it expects second-quarter revenue of about $6.70 billion, down 19% from the prior quarter, largely hurt by weakness in its gaming business.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index declined 2.3%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was flat in choppy trading after rising as much as 1.6% in early trading.
Light trading volumes added to market volatility, according to Joe Saluzzi, partner at Themis Trading.
Offsetting losses on the Nasdaq, megacap Tesla rose 3.6% as the US electric-car maker signed contracts worth about $5 billion to buy materials for their batteries from nickel processing companies in Indonesia, according to a CNBC report.
The US Senate on Sunday passed a sweeping $430 billion bill intended to fight climate change, lower drug prices and raise some corporate taxes.
Signify Health Inc jumped 13.4% on a media report that CVS Health Corp was looking to buy the health technology company.
At 12:56 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 37.45 points, or 0.11%, at 32,840.92, the S&P 500 was down 1.55 points, or 0.04%.
Palantir Technologies Inc dropped 13.3% after the data analytics software company lowered its annual revenue forecast as the timing of some large government contracts remained uncertain.
Tyson Foods Inc fell 8.2% on missing quarterly profit expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.52-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded eight new 52-week highs and 29 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 91 new highs and 19 new lows.
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