Stocks drifted lower as Wall Street's pullback from its recent rally carried into a second week. The S&P 500 fell 1 9.51 points, or 0.4%, to 4,328.82 Monday. The index remains close to its highest level in a year. Tech stocks were the heaviest weights on the market and helped drag the Nasdaq to a loss of 1.2%. The index fell 156.74 points, or to 13,335.78. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.72 points, or less than 0.1%, to 33,714.71. This week does not have many economic or earnings reports that could help answer the main question facing markets: Will the economy be able to avoid a painful recession after global central banks hiked interest rates at a blistering pace fight inflation?
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group jumped 1.5% after announcing a deal where it would provide powertrain and battery systems to Aston Martin, the AP reports. PacWest Bancorp, one of the banks Wall Street has punished in its hunt for the system's next potential weak link, rose 4% after it sold a portfolio of loans to strengthen its cash position. Carnival, meanwhile, fell 7.6% despite reporting stronger results and revenue for its latest quarter than expected. Its forecasted ranges for earnings per share, occupancy levels, and other measures in the current quarter may have disappointed some investors.
Adding to the uncertainty was a short-lived armed rebellion in Russia over the weekend. The war in Ukraine has already helped push upward on inflation around the world, but investors mostly looked past the brief mutiny by mercenary soldiers. Crude oil prices were holding relatively steady, unlike the first days of the war in Ukraine when they soared immediately. A barrel of US crude rose 0.3% to $69.37. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.6% to $74.44.
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