U.S. stocks traded without a clear direction on Monday as oil prices jumped, bond yields stayed under pressure and investors digested a fresh wave of corporate news. The S&P 500 slipped roughly 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite both hovered just below the flatline in one update, though the Nasdaq briefly edged up 0.1% in another.
The move came as Brent crude futures topped $110 a barrel, lifted by renewed tensions in the Middle East over the weekend, including drone attacks against an Emirati nuclear power plant. The jump in energy prices added to inflation worries at a moment when the 10-year Treasury yield briefly climbed above 4.6% early Monday before easing back below that level.
Markets have been trying to balance those pressures against a week that is expected to turn on company results, with Nvidia earnings due on Wednesday, Target set to report the same day and Walmart due on Thursday. That makes the current stretch more than just another choppy session; traders are also trying to decide whether rising oil and rates will overshadow what had already been shaping up as a heavy earnings calendar.
The latest pressure on stocks was not confined to macro news. NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy said on Monday that they reached a $66.8 billion all-stock transaction that would create the largest energy utility in the country if completed, adding another sign that big companies still see room to act even as markets wobble. At the same time, UnitedHealth Group fell more than 3% in premarket trading after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in a 13F filing that it no longer held a position in the company.
Berkshire sold its entire stake of more than 5 million UnitedHealth shares in the last quarter, and the filing also showed that the firm increased its stake in Alphabet while exiting its Amazon investment. Those shifts matter because they came from one of Wall Street’s most closely watched investors, and because they landed on a day when the broader market was already being pulled between higher oil, higher yields and the risk that inflation fears could return to the center of the trade. The brief recovery in the bond market suggests investors are not running in one direction just yet, but the early Monday tone was clear: nerves were back.
For now, the most telling number may be the one that sits above the market, not inside it. With Brent above $110 a barrel, the 10-year yield near 4.6% and the S&P 500 unable to build momentum, traders are entering a week of earnings with fewer places to hide than they had hoped.
S&p 500: les futures reculent alors que les taux et le pétrole grimpent
