Stocks were lower in midday trading Monday as investors digested the latest developments on the global trade front.
The benchmark S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were each down 0.6% recently, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%. Stocks are coming off a winning week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite entering this week at record levels while the Dow was less than 0.5% away from its first new high since December.
White House officials over the weekend said that tariffs would be reimposed on leading trading partners on August 1 if agreements aren’t reached before then. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this morning in an interview with CNBC that several deals are expected in the next few days. The so-called reciprocal tariffs, which roiled financial markets in early April when they were first announced, had been expected to go back into effect on July 9 at the end of a 90-day pause.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump said late Sunday in a Truth Social post that countries “aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS” would face an additional 10% tariff. The BRICS group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran.
Tesla (TSLA) was the big decliner in the S&P 500 on Monday, with shares falling nearly 7% after CEO Elon Musk, who has been a vocal critic of the massive tax and spending bill that Congress approved last week, announced over the weekend he is creating a new political party. Musk, who until recently ran the government’s Department of Government Efficiency, has engaged in a public feud with Trump over the last several weeks, raising concerns among investors about the potential impact on Tesla.
Other mega-cap technology stocks were mixed. Alphabet (GOOG) was down more than 1%, while Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) posted more-modest declines. Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Broadcom (AVGO) inched higher.
Among other noteworthy tech sector movers, chip designer Arm Holdings (ARM) dropped more than 5%, while Marvell Technology (MRVL) declined nearly 4%, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and ON Semiconductors (ON) each fell more than 2%, as chip stocks were broadly lower. Data analytics software company Palantir (PLTR) climbed about 3% to pace Nasdaq 100 advancers.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, was at 4.39%, up from 4.34% at the end of last week and at its highest level in two weeks. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.2% to 97.35, after hitting its lowest level since early 2022 last week.
Bitcoin was at $108,400, down from an overnight high of $109,700. The digital currency isn’t far from its all-time high of around $112,000.
Gold futures were down 0.4% at $3,330 an ounce this morning, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 0.7% to $67.45 per barrel.
