Stocks fell on Monday as traders tried to regain their footing amid rising concerns about rising prices and tighter US monetary policy.
The major averages hit session lows around midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12 points after falling nearly 300 points on the day. The S&P 500 dipped slightly, and the Nasdaq composite was off just 0.4 percent.
Tech and healthcare were the worst performing S&P 500 sectors, while energy and consumer staples were the best performers. Dow Inc and Salesforce were the worst performers in the 30-stock Dow Industrials; Those losses were offset by 1% gains at Walmart and Chevron.
Wall Street suffered a sharp sell-off on Friday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s brief and vague comments in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, dashed hopes that the central bank would reverse aggressive rate hikes in coming months.
The Dow fell 1,008 points, or more than 3%, for its worst day since May. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 3.4% and 3.9%, respectively, for their worst days since June. The drop erased August’s gains for all three averages.
“With the aggressive and relentless sell-off from Friday winding down, there’s not much real buying interest – even the bulls will want to pass this week’s major macro events (including China PMI and Eurozone CPI on Wed and the US jobs report on Friday) to the long side.” Before moving in,” writes Critical Insights’ Adam Crisafulli. “Late summer attendance/noise conditions make the environment more treacherous than usual, and September’s severe weather is one more reason to keep people on edge.”
The rest of the week brings more Fed speeches, including Vice Chairman Lael Brainard on Tuesday, ahead of the August nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
