By US stocks retreated from near-record highs on Monday, with all three major moving averages declining by about 1%.
A number of risk factors pushed stocks lower on Monday, including a jump in interest rates and oil prices, the growing intensity of Hurricane Milton, and negative news flow for a couple of mega-cap technology stocks.
The 10-year US Treasury yield jumped back above 4% on Monday, representing its highest level in about two months. Friday’s release of the September jobs report sparked the move higher in yields.
The stronger-than-expected nonfarm payroll report showed employers added 254,000 jobs last month, crushing estimates of about 150,000. The unemployment rate also declined slightly to 4.1%.
Meanwhile, oil prices continued to surge on Monday, rising by about 4% as tensions in the Middle East continued to simmer on the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack against Israel.
The rise in oil prices and the stronger jobs report are fanning fears of a potential rebound in inflation, which would mean fewer rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
“After Friday’s strong employment report, the consensus might pivot to ‘no rush to ease further’ during the fall. We can’t rule out ‘higher for longer’ making a comeback this winter. We are in the none-and-done camp for the rest of this year,” Yardeni Research said in a note on Monday.
Finally, a Wells Fargo analyst downgrade of Amazon sent that stock lower by about 3%, while Alphabet shares dropped 2% after a judge ordered the company to open its app store to more competition, handing a victory to Epic Games.
Investors will turn their attention to earnings season, which kicks off this week with results from PepsiCo on Tuesday, followed by the first of the major banks on Friday.
Finally, the September CPI report is also due out this Thursday. Economists expect the CPI index to rise 2.3% year-over-year in September, down from 2.5% in August. Bank of America analysts note that an upside surprise in last month’s inflation reading has the potential to send stocks on a roller coaster this week.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Monday:
- S&P 500: 5,695.94, down 0.96%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 41,954.24, down 0.94% (-398.51 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 17,923.90, down 1.18%
Here’s what else is going on:
- Nvidia stock jumped 4% on Monday after Super Micro Computer said it was shipping more than 100,000 GPUs per quarter.
- JPMorgan’s chief strategist told Business Insider why he is feeling “increasingly queasy” about the market.
- A Tesla trader turned $65,000 into $306 million before losing it all, according to a lawsuit.
- Falling home prices and fed-up residents show the Texas housing boom is slowing down.
- Consumer prices are still in focus for investors despite the Fed’s recent pivot to the labor market.
- Goldman Sachs increased its year-end S&P 500 price target for the third time this year to 6,000.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 3.93% to $77.30 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was higher by 3.89% to $81.09 a barrel.
- Gold was down 0.18% to $2,663.00 an ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield was higher by 7 basis points at 4.032%.
- Bitcoin was higher by 0.82% to $63,335.
