Stocks slip on Wall Street after last week's rally

Summary

Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday, after a big jump last week on hopes for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 was down 0.2%, hovering around its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 301 points, or 0.7% as of 3:09 p.m. Eastern time, pulling back from the record it set on Friday. The Nasdaq composite edged up 0.1%.

Health care stocks were the biggest drag on the market. Pfizer fell 2.5% and Eli Lilly and Co. was 2.2% lower.

Gains for several big technology stocks helped offset broader losses in the market. Alphabet, Google's parent company, rose 1.3%. Technology heavyweight Nvidia rose 1.9%.

Keurig Dr Pepper sank 11.4% after saying it will buy Peet's Coffee owner JDE Peet's in a deal worth about $18 billion.

Railroad stocks fell following a report that Warren Buffett informed CSX management that he is not looking to buy the railroad. Shares in CSX fell 4.7%. Union Pacific dropped 2.2% and Norfolk Southern was 2.4% lower.

Treasury yields rose in the bond market following their big drop on Friday amid expectations that the Fed will cut its benchmark interest rate in September.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.28% from 4.25% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 3.73% from 3.70% late Friday.

European markets mostly closed lower after Asian markets finished lower overnight.

Wall Street is still overwhelmingly betting that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 86% chance that the central bank will trim its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.

The Fed has been maintaining rates at their current level since the end of 2024 amid worries about inflation heating up as tariffs work their way through the economy to businesses and households.

The central bank has grown increasingly concerned about the state of the job market in the U.S. Its two main focuses are keeping inflation low and supporting conditions for strong employment.

Recent signals have show that the job market is seemingly stagnating and could possibly weaken, which could prompt the central bank to cut rates. Lower interest rates make borrowing easier, helping to spur more investment and spending, but that could also potentially fuel inflation.

So far, consumer confidence remains mostly solid, though concerns about inflation linger. Wall Street and the Fed will get an update on consumer confidence in the U.S. when business group The Conference Board releases its monthly survey for August on Tuesday. Economists expect overall confidence to remain mostly unchanged from July.

The bigger update will come on Friday, when the government releases an inflation report that is closely monitored by the Fed. An update on inflation earlier in August showed that consumer prices remained modestly higher in July, compared with a year ago. The government's report on Friday, the personal consumption expenditures price index, is expected to show a similar result.

Economists expect the PCE to show that prices rose 2.6% in July, compared with a year ago. That's unchanged from the rate in June and hovering just above the Fed's preferred target of 2%.

Wall Street has a few more corporate earnings updates this week, essentially wrapping up the latest round of profit reports and forecasts from U.S. companies.

Nvidia will report its latest results on Wednesday. The company's role as a key supplier of chips for artificial intelligence and its heavy weighting give it outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market. It has been a driving force for much of the market's gains, along with several other tech giants with pricey stock values.

On Thursday, Wall Street will get earnings updates from electronics retailer Best Buy and discount retailer Dollar General. Retailers are being closely watched as Wall Street tries to gauge the current and potential future impact on costs and prices from tariffs.

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