Stock indexes on Wall Street shed early gains and turned lower in afternoon trading Monday, a choppy start to a week full of updates on the two things that set stock prices: how much profit companies are making and where interest rates are heading. The S&P 500, which was up around 1% early on, fell 32.31 points, or 0.8%, to 3,830.85. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 215.65 points, or 0.7%, to 31,072.61. The Nasdaq fell 92.37 points, or 0.8%, to 11,360.05. Dozens of big companies will give updates this week on how much profit they earned during the spring, the AP reports.
Gains for energy producers, big retailers, and other companies that rely on consumer spending were outweighed by a pullback in health care and technology stocks. Goldman Sachs rallied 2.6% after reporting better profits than analysts expected. Synchrony Financial rose 0.4% after it likewise topped forecasts for profit and revenue. Bank of America added 0.1% even though it fell short of analysts' profit expectations. Johnson & Johnson, American Airlines, and Tesla are among the dozens of S&P 500 companies that are scheduled to report results later in the week.
Markets have been lurching mostly lower for weeks on worries that the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world will slam the brake too hard on the economy in hopes of bringing down high inflation. If they’re too aggressive with their interest-rate hikes, they could cause a recession. But some on Wall Street are seeing signs for at least temporary optimism. Oil prices have come off their highs, though US crude rose 5.1% Monday. A key report released last week also indicated expectations are easing for inflation among households. That could prevent a more vicious cycle from taking root and ease the pressure on the Federal Reserve. (More stock market stories.)
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