Yahoo Finance Stock market news live updates: Stocks mixed amid lingering inflation concerns, S&P 500 hovers near record high
Stocks ended mixed on Monday as investors weighed the prospects of higher inflation and rates in the U.S. against Friday's solid print on the U.S. labor market recovery.
[Click here to read what's moving markets heading into Tuesday, June 8]
On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested higher interest rates "would actually be a plus for society's point of view and the Fed's point of view," according to an interview with Bloomberg. She added that President Joe Biden should push ahead with his sweeping multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan even if the elevated spending contributes to longer-lasting inflation and higher interest rates.
The statements appeared to solidify that at least some policymakers were comfortable with rising inflation and rates, even as investors have eyed these scenarios with increasing nervousness over their implications for equity prices.
"Inflation can become a headwind to valuations if it leads to expectations of Fed tightening and thus higher real interest rates," Goldman Sachs Strategist David Kostin wrote in a note Monday. "Overall, the stock market tends to perform better during periods of low inflation than when inflation is high."
"Within the market, periods of high inflation have corresponded with the outperformance of the Health Care, Energy, Real Estate, and the Consumer Staples sectors," he said. "Materials and Technology stocks have fared the worst in high inflation environments."
Still, a number of members of the Federal Reserve have reiterated that they believe the economy is still on the mend from the coronavirus pandemic, and thus that any tightening of their current, highly accommodative monetary policies remains a ways off. Friday's slightly weaker-than-expected May jobs report seemed to justify this stance, as it showed the economy was still adding back jobs at a pace that suggested a prolonged recovery back to pre-pandemic levels even given present monetary and fiscal support. Market participants also lowered their bets on a 2022 Federal Reserve rate hike following the jobs report, based on CME Group's Fed Funds Futures.
"Fed Funds Futures prices reflect a solid belief that the first Fed rate increase is not coming until 2023," Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research, wrote in a note Monday. "Given all the chatter about inflation, that’s pretty remarkable, but it certainly does provide useful color regarding the current strength in U.S. equity markets."
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4:03 p.m. ET: Stocks end mixed: S&P 500 ends slightly below record high as inflation concerns linger
Here were the main moves in markets as of 4:03 p.m. ET:
S&P 500 (^GSPC): -3.43 (-0.08%) to 4,226.46
Dow (^DJI): -126.81 (-0.36%) to 34,629.58
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +67.23 (+0.49%) to 13,881.72
Crude (CL=F): -$0.42 (-0.60%) to $69.20 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): +$10.70 (+0.57%) to $1,902.70 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +0.9 bps to yield 1.5690%
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1:53 p.m. ET: Amazon set to be included in international tax plan: Report
Amazon (AMZN) shares turned lower by nearly 1% Monday afternoon after Bloomberg reported that global policymakers are working to ensure the e-commerce giant will be included in a new international tax plan, which would increase the tax liability for the company.
Group of Seven officials last week proposed rules that would include, among other provisions, a 15% global corporate minimum tax rate. However, it initially appeared that Amazon would be able to sidestep this proposed new rule since the company's profit margins were below a 10% threshold set by the G7.
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11:45 a.m. ET: There's a 'tug of war' in the stock market right now: Strategist
According to some strategists, it's unsurprising to see equities drifting sideways given the opposing forces at work. On the plus side, economic strength is set to continue, but on the downside, this pick-up in activity could lead to a surge in inflation and rates.
"There's a tug of war. And on one side, you've got this incredible economic and earnings news, and that's not going to give up anytime soon," Bob Doll, Crossmark Global Investment chief investor officer, told Yahoo Finance. "We're going to get an amazing print on second quarter GDP, and the earnings numbers will reflect that."
"But on the other end of the tug of war rope, pulling in the other direction is, okay, do I have to have some higher inflation and higher interest rates to pay for all of that? Is that the consequence? I think the answer is probably yes," he added. "And we're going to get that back and forth tug of war."
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11:26 a.m. ET: AMC shares jump 19% intraday as "meme stocks" resurge
Shares of AMC Entertainment (AMC) advanced more than 19% mid-morning on Monday as online investors on Reddit and other social media platforms piled back into the stock. Shares of other companies popular on retail investors also rallied, with GameStop (GME) and BlackBerry (BB) each up 9%. GameStop is also poised to report fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday after market close.
Investors shrugged off regulatory concerns around some of these social media-fueled names, with the Security and Exchange Commission telling Bloomberg on Monday that the agency was monitoring for market manipulation and misconduct amid the meme stock surges.
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9:31 a.m. ET: Stocks open mixed, tech shares lag modestly
The three major indexes opened Monday's session little changed, with the Dow and S&P 500 opening slightly to the upside. The session looked poised to be one driven by the "reopening trade," with airline, cruise line and lodging company stocks moving upward while the tech shares lagged and pulled the Nasdaq slightly below the flat line.
Cyclical small cap stocks outperformed, with the Russell 2000 moving higher by 0.3%. Crude oil slipped to give back some of last week's gains, and Treasury yields moved slightly higher across the curve.
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7:23 a.m. ET Monday: Stock futures struggle for direction
Here's where markets were trading ahead of the opening bell Monday morning:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 4,224.75, -0.08 points (-0.05%)
Dow futures (YM=F): 34,763.00, +21 points (+0.06%)
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 13,733.00, -33.75 points (-0.25%)
Crude (CL=F): -$0.27 (-0.39%) to $69.35 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$4.10 (-0.22%) to $1,887.90 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +1.9 bps to yield 1.579%
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Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck
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