U.S. stocks exhibited mixed results on Monday, experiencing a deceleration after a promising start. Notably, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 surged to record highs, while the Dow concluded the session in negative territory.
Initial optimism surrounding interest rate prospects bolstered stocks early in the session; however, investor sentiment grew more cautious later in the day in anticipation of forthcoming data on consumer and producer prices, as well as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped by 31.08 points, or 0.08%, to close at 39,344.79. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 increased by 5.66 points, or 0.1%, to 5,572.85, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 50.98 points, or 0.28%, to 18,403.74.
On the economic front, leading indicators for U.S. payroll employment showed a decline in June, continuing a downward trend observed over recent months. This suggests a potential slowdown in payroll hiring during the latter half of the year, as indicated by data from the Conference Board.
The Conference Board Employment Trends Index dropped to 110.27 in June from a revised figure of 111.04 in May.
Networking stocks performed robustly, with gains also seen in shares of semiconductor and hardware companies, notably contributing to the Nasdaq's strength. Nvidia rose by nearly 2%, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. surged 4%, Intel climbed more than 6%, and Dell Technologies increased by 5%.
Other significant gainers included Broadcom Inc., Home Depot, Qualcomm, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments, GE Aerospace, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Booking Holdings Inc., Citigroup, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Lowe's, and Analog Devices.
Conversely, Nike, Comcast Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, McDonald's Corporation, Cisco Systems, Wells Fargo, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Visa, and Meta Platforms ended the day weaker.
In international trading, Asia-Pacific markets predominantly declined on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index decreased by 0.3%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.9%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped by 1.6%.
European markets also closed slightly lower as investors assessed the impact of French parliamentary election results and awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony for insights into the U.S. central bank's policy direction.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 dipped by 0.03%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell by 0.13%, France's CAC 40 reduced by 0.63%, and Germany's DAX marginally declined by 0.02%.
