By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq edged higher in a choppy session on Monday amid weak data from the manufacturing sector. An outage on the NYSE briefly halted trading in dozens of stocks.
An outage on the New York Stock Exchange had caused huge swings in shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) and Barrick Gold (NYSE:). Trading in at least 60 NYSE-listed stocks was halted due to volatility before the exchange resolved the technical issue and resumed activity.
Benchmark and the Nasdaq finished higher after paring earlier losses during the session, while the Dow Jones lost ground. Technology stocks were the biggest gainers, while energy stocks were the biggest hurdle.
Markets had weighed data showing that U.S. manufacturing activity had slowed for a second straight month, raising concerns about weakening economic growth.
“It’s one of those days where people are in a choppy post-earnings move waiting for the next catalyst,” said Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services in Atlanta.
“There is a bit of a tug-of-war between the market seeing weaker data and expectations that the Fed will cut rates,” Lerner added.
Traders see a 59% chance that the Fed will start cutting rates in September, compared to about 53% before the ISM data was released, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool. Yields on US 10-year bonds fell to their lowest level in two weeks after soft manufacturing data.
Shares fell 115.29 points, or 0.30%, to 38,571.03, while the S&P 500 gained 5.89 points, or 0.11%, to 5,283.40 and gained 93.66 points, or 0.56 %, to 16,828.67.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:) rose 4.9% after CEO Jensen Huang revealed that the company’s next-generation AI chip platform would be rolled out in 2026.
Shares of other megacaps, including Apple (NASDAQ:), Amazon (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Meta (NASDAQ:), closed higher. Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Tesla (NASDAQ:) ended lower.
GameStop (NYSE:) rose 21% after a weekend Reddit post from stock influencer Keith Gill, aka “Roaring Kitty,” showed a $116 million bet on the gaming retailer.
Investors will be watching a data-packed week, with surveys on the services sector, factory orders and Friday’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls report, which could provide clues about the Fed’s likely stance on interest rates.
On the NYSE, advancing issues outnumbered declining issues by a ratio of 1.03 to 1. On the Nasdaq, 2,146 stocks rose and 2,171 fell as declining issues outpaced advancers by a 1.01-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite posted 68 new highs and 101 new lows.
The total volume of shares traded on US exchanges was approximately 11.5 billion shares, compared to the average of 12.6 billion over the past 20 trading days.
