Midday: Dow narrows gains, Nasdaq and S&P 500 turn lower
In the early morning of July 28, Beijing time, U.S. stocks were mixed at midday on Monday, with the Dow narrowing its gains and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes turning lower. Oil prices fell after the United States and Iran suspended fighting over the weekend. Traders are also looking ahead to a packed week of events, including big tech earnings and a potentially surprising Federal Reserve meeting. The Dow rose 92.08 points, or 0.18%, to 52,039.33 points; the Nasdaq fell 100.02 points, or 0.40%, to 24,875.81 points; the S&P 500 fell 13.12 points, or 0.18%, to 7,398.86 points. Tensions in the Middle East cooled, sending oil prices lower. Brent crude oil futures for September delivery fell 7.7% to about $89.41 a barrel on Monday morning. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell more than 6.3% to $83.21 a barrel. But geopolitical tensions rose elsewhere, with Ukraine attacking an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea, prompting Tehran to accuse Kiev of "hostile and criminal acts". The major stock indexes will face many challenges in the week ahead. , Meta platform and Quarterly earnings are coming, following Alphabet's disappointing results last week, and the reports will either ease investor concerns about a frenzy of spending on artificial intelligence or exacerbate them. The earnings results could have a direct impact on semiconductor companies, which are the main beneficiaries of the AI spending boom. "The biggest risk is the continuation of spending," said Ken Mahoney, chief executive of Mahoney Asset Management. "The problem is, if they do listen to shareholders and scale back a little bit or slow down the growth of that part of their spending, the rest of the market isn't going to like that either." "So it's a bit of a seesaw effect," he said. The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday. The market generally believes that the central bank will raise interest rates in September, but according to the CME Fed Watch Tool, market pricing shows that the Fed is more likely to raise its benchmark borrowing rate by 25 basis points as early as this week. U.S. stocks had just experienced another losing week, with a pullback in chip stocks and uncertainty about a war with Iran weighing on investors. On Friday, the S&P 500 and The index fell 0.6% and 2.1% respectively, recording weekly declines for two consecutive weeks. The index fell 0.4%, its third consecutive weekly loss. In terms of economic data on Monday, U.S. durable goods orders increased by 0.3% in June from the previous month; the forecast is for an increase of 1.8%. The forecast range of 43 economists ranged from -0.7% growth to 5.7% growth. New orders excluding transportation goods increased 0.6% in June, compared with a 1.8% increase in May. New orders excluding defense supplies increased 0.3% in June after falling 4.3% in May. Excluding aircraft, capital goods orders excluding defense supplies increased 0.9% in June, compared with a 1.9% increase in May. Excluding aircraft, capital goods shipments excluding defense supplies increased 1.9% in June from a 0.2% increase in May.