Wall Street edges higher with data, Fed comments in focus

Wall Street’s main indexes edged higher in choppy trading on Monday, as investors awaited fresh economic data and comments from Federal Reserve officials for more clarity on monetary policy.

Apple and Microsoft helped arrest the losses with gains of 2.1% and 0.4%, while AI chip leader Nvidia retreated from a record high to fall 0.7%.

Some other chip stocks rose though, briefly sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index to an all-time high. Broadcom and U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co were up around 3% each, while Micron Technology jumped 3.5% after price-target raises by brokerages.

Technology was the biggest gainer among the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, while real estate and utilities led declines.

“Technology is not only leading, it continues to lead and does all the heavy lifting ... until we get to the next earnings cycle there isn’t really a catalyst to lift the market,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets.

“(This week) I suspect we’ll see a little bit of a slowdown volume wise, because we’ve hit summer, there’s no earnings and the mid-week holiday.”

Markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.

Wall Street’s move to halve the time it takes to complete a stock trade will create a “systemic risk” in Europe unless market participants get more time to line up dollars for stock purchases, Europe’s asset management industry said on Thursday.

U.S. stock markets, along with those in Canada and Mexico, will require share trades to be settled within one business day (T+1) from the end of May, instead of two at present, which is the norm in

“But the Dow is seen as ‘Main Street America,’ and media across this country and global media reference the Dow. It is enduring and includes companies that are part of the future. What (hitting 40,000) means is that regardless of the concerns about inflation and consumer sentiment, the companies in the Dow, which represent a cross section of our economy, continue to March higher on better earnings and stronger guidance.”

Goldman Sachs raised its 2024 year-end target for the S&P 500 Index to 5,600 from 5,200 earlier, while Evercore ISI raised its year-end target for the benchmark index to 6,000 from 4,750.

Both brokerages pointed to strength in the technology sector and enthusiasm for artificial intelligence as reasons for their upgrades.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 hit multiple all-time peaks in the previous week.

Markets are also keeping a close eye on upcoming comments from the New York Fed’s John Williams, Philadelphia Fed’s Patrick Harker and Fed Board Governor Lisa Cook later on Monday.

On the economic roster for the rest of the week are May retail sales data on Tuesday, with industrial production, housing starts and S&P flash PMI data among other key releases due later in the week.

Recent hawkish projections from the Federal have somewhat data pointing to growing weakness in the economy. The central bank dialed back their projections for three rate cuts in 2024 to just one on Wednesday.

However, markets still expect about two 25-basis-point cuts this year, according to LSEG data. The CME FedWatch tool shows easing is still seen beginning at the September meeting.

At 12:08 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.71 points, or 0.04%, at 38,602.87, the S&P 500 was up 10.43 points, or 0.19%, at 5,442.03, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 26.09 points, or 0.15%, at 17,714.97.

Autodesk jumped 5.6% after a report that activist investor Starboard Value had bought a roughly $500 million stake in the software maker.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.44-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.73-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 24 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and 168 new lows.