4:17pm: Amazon, Apple on deck this week
The Dow closed Monday up 100 points, 0.3%, at 35,559, the Nasdaq Composite added 29 points, 0.2%, to 14,346 and the S&P 500 improved 7 points, 0.2%, to 4,589. The small-cap Russell 2000 index gained 19 points, 1%, to 2,001.
After teetering around the flatline for most of the session, the benchmarks rose just before the closing bell. With July officially in the rear-view mirror, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each secured their fifth consecutive winning month for the first time since 2021.
Earnings season is more than half over, and investors are looking ahead to Thursday when Amazon and Apple will offer their quarterly reports.
“If they give really good guidance, we could see this bull market really continue to pick up speed and even see some momentum heading into the fall,” said Independent Advisor Alliance’s Chris Zaccarell.
12:05pm: Wall Street on track for winning month
US stocks were mixed in noon trading as investors were cautious ahead of Apple Inc and Amazon results later this week.
At midday, the Dow lost 6 points to 35,453 while the S&P 500 was unchanged at 4,582 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 15 points to 14,332.
“Earnings coming in not as bad as feared, clearly that’s a good thing for the market,” Independent Advisor Alliance’s Chris Zaccarelli said.
Notable movers included shares of SoFi Technologies Inc, which surged 18% after the financial services company posted a smaller-than-expected loss for 2Q and boosted its full-year revenue guidance.
9:35am: Apple, Amazon earnings eyed
US stocks started the final trading day of July mixed ahead of another big week of corporate earnings.
Just after the market opened, the Dow Jones had slipped 13 points or 0.04% to 35,446 points, while the S&P 500 was up 5 points or 0.1% at 4,587 points and the Nasdaq had added 45 points or 0.35 at 14,358 points.
“US markets are growing increasingly confident that we are approaching the end of the current rate-hike cycle and that a soft landing can be delivered following last week’s data that showed the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation fell to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic,” FOREX.com market analyst Joshua Warner commented.
However, he noted that: “The future path of interest rates and the outlook for earnings both remain at the behest of macroeconomic conditions and data will remain key. That may be stirring a cautious mood this morning as markets await key jobs data and reports from behemoths including Apple, Amazon and AMD later this week.”
7:45am: Futures push higher
UK blue chips are expected to push higher on Monday, the final session for July, aiming to consolidate the month's strong gains.
In pre-market trading, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) were 0.1% higher, while those for the S&P 500 also rose 0.1%, and contracts for the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.06%.
The blue-chip DJIA is up 3.1% so far in July and last week posted a 13-day advance that matched the index’s longest streak of gains going back to 1987.
The broader S&P 500 is up 3.0% for the month, on track for its fifth positive month in a row for the first time since its seven-month streak ending August 2021. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has gained 3.8% month to date, also on track for its fifth straight winning month.
Investor attention this week will be on the July payrolls report, due on Friday, with forecasters expecting the US economy to have added 200,000 jobs for the month. Non-farm payrolls increased by 209,000 in June.
Last week, the Federal Reserve hiked rates to their highest level in more than 22 years with a much-anticipated quarter-point hike to snuff out the spectre of inflation, after a pause in the hiking cycle at its previous meeting.
In a statement after the latest policy decision, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will make now data-driven decisions on a “meeting-by-meeting” basis.
The corporate earnings river also continues to flow.
Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets commented: "Earnings remain a key driver of markets as we move through the second quarter, with big hitters Apple and Amazon maintaining the tech theme this week. Today sees few major earnings releases of note, as tomorrow will see more prominent names such as Merck, Pfizer, AMD, Caterpillar, and Starbucks report.
"With 51% of the S&P 500 having reported, this marks the halfway point for Q2 earnings season. It has been notable that those initial reports have seen the blended earnings growth rate for Q2 drop to -7.3% (vs 7% expected), despite seeing 80% of the companies outperform estimates."