4:12pm: GameStop gains
The Nasdaq finished the day 0.6% higher at 16,828 points, buoyed by a 5% gain in chipmaker Nvidia, which closed at about $1,150.
The S&P 500 was modestly higher, up 0.1% at 5,283 points while the Dow Jones shed 0.3% at 38,571 points.
GameStop closed 21% at $28 after Keith Gill, an investor known online as Roaring Kitty who spurred the meme stock rally in 2021, posted an update online showing that he had invested $175 million in building his stake in the company.
Fellow meme stock AMC Entertainment was boosted by GameStop's rally, adding 11.4% at $4.83.
12:10pm: New-month optimism fades
US stocks were mixed at midday, with the Nasdaq edging about 0.2% higher at 16,762 points, while the Dow Jones and S&P 500 traded lower.
The Dow Jones was down 0.7% at 38,399 points and the S&P 500 was down 0.3% at 5,263 points.
“New-month optimism has faded quickly on global equity markets, as a slew of concerns hobbled the morning’s positive start,” IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp commented.
The price of Crude oil also slumped more than 3% to about $74 per barrel.
“At least consumers will be seeing lower petrol prices at the pumps soon. Oil prices have slumped to their lowest level since early February,” Beauchamp said.
“Friday’s optimism around an OPEC+ meeting has evaporated. The news has put some pressure on BP and Shell in London, though their losses are dwarfed by the slump in GSK’s share price as it faces fresh legal battles.”
11.10am: NYSE says issue fixed
The NYSE said the trading halts earlier were caused by a "technical issue with industry-wide price bands".
The price band issue, which triggered trading halts in a number of stocks, has now been resolved, it said in a statement.
In full, the statement read: "A technical issue with industry-wide price bands published by the CTA SIP [Consolidated Tape Association's Security Information Processor] triggered halts in a number of stocks listed on the NYSE Group exchanges this morning.
"Impacted stocks have since reopened (or are in the process of reopening) and the price bands issue has been resolved."
10.57am: Wall Street wobbles
It is not clear if the problems the NYSE is having - with the likes of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway seeming to plummet 99% - are affecting the wider market indices.
But the Dow Jones is down 177 points or 0.5% at 38,508.73, the S&P 500 is down 0.2% and the early gains in the Nasdaq have been pared to 0.14%.
10.27am: Berkshire Hathaway appears to fall 99%, NYSE says technical issue
The New York Stock Exchange said it is continuing to investigate a technical issue on LULD bands, the limit-up, limit-down circuit breaker system after some big stocks like Berkshire Hathaway appeared to have plunged 100%.
The Limit Up-Limit Down (LULD) mechanism is intended to prevent trades from occurring outside of specified price bands in a short period of time, to insert a pause in the case of huge sell-offs.
Trading was halted in Berkshire shares, as well as stocks including Barrick Gold and Nuscale Power, which also seemed to crash.
10am: Mixed start, Nasdaq up, Dow down
US markets have opened mixed, with tech giants not doing the pulling required to offset falls for energy companies and industrials.
The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.79%, while the Dow Jones is down 0.07%, with the S&P 500 up 0.33% in between.
Nvidia, up 4.1% today (and 136% since the start of the year!), is the biggest gainer of the big guns.
Airlines are also up, with Southwest, American and Boeing all up around 2.5% after the industry outlook upgrade earlier.
GameStop opened 73% higher at over $40, but is now back to $30, a gain of just under 32%. Similarly, AMC Entertainment jumped 29% but is now up 8%.
US manufacturing PMI data from S&P Global just came in higher than expected at 51.3, versus 50.9 previously and above the 50.9 consensus estimate.
Brent crude has fallen below $80 a barrel for the first time since February, or front-month Brent futures as my old editor used to insist on saying, down 1.3% today and over 2.2% during the past month.
7.40am: Nasdaq to lead as stocks set for mixed start
US stock markets are set for a mixed open on Monday, the first trading day in June, after a strong finish to last month.
Tech stocks are likely to remain the key driver, with Nasdaq 100 futures pointing to a 0.4% gain, while S&P 500 futures are up 0.12%.
Dow Jones futures, on the other hand, were down 0.08%.
Last week finished with a bang, a Trump guilty verdict and a new record highs for markets after weaker personal spending data, a weaker Chicago PMI and the stable core PCE inflation report.
This resulted in a late surge in the last 20 minutes of month-end trading on Friday, helping the S&P 500 "regain some poise after a more challenging last week of the month", says Deutsche Banke macro strategist Henry Allen.
He noted that most indices recovered after their losses in April, with a 5% gain for the S&P 500, the 3.5% for the STOXX 600, 0.75% for the FTSE 100 and 0.2% for the Nikkei.
Tech stocks outperformed, with the Magnificent 7 group up 9.1%.
This week looks like beginning with another for so-called meme stocks, which were flying in premarket trading, with GameStop soaring 71% after Redditor Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty or DeepF Value posted what appeared to be a screenshot of his latest trades.
Nvidia is also up 3% after overnight at the Computex Conference in Taiwan CEO Jensen Huang introduced the next generation Rubin chip that is due out in 2026.
Economic data today includes US manufacturing PMI, with the initial estimate of 50.9 while the ISM has it at 49.6, with ISM prices paid expected to be 59.5, down from 60.9.
The data point that will dominate the week is Friday’s non-farm payrolls report – where it is expected to show an increase of 190k jobs with unemployment remaining at 3.9%. Average Hourly Earnings m/m up 0.3% and y/y of + 3.9%.