Stocks moved slight lower in early trading Monday as investors prepared for a slew of retail sector earnings reports in the coming days and a major speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the end of the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) were each down 0.1% in recent trading. Stocks had a sluggish finish to last week as investor expectations for the Fed to cut interest rates moderated after worrisome wholesale inflation data. Nonetheless, the major indexes posted gains for the second straight week, and entered the week just below record highs.
The big event of the week comes Friday, when Powell will speak at the Jackson Hole Symposium, an annual gathering of the world’s central bankers. Investors will be looking for confirmation that the Fed could be on course to cut its benchmark lending rate at the next policy committee meeting in September. After the Fed decided last month to stand pat on rates, Powell said the Fed needed to see more data on how tariffs were affecting inflation before adjusting policy.
Meanwhile, earnings reports from major retailers—Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW), Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT) and TJ Maxx parent TJX (TJX) are among those scheduled to release results this week—will provide investors with clues about the impact of tariffs and the state of consumer spending.
Shares of the world’s largest technology companies, which have an outsized influence on the overall market, were mixed this morning. Meta Platforms (META) shares declined 3%, while Broadcom (AVGO) declined 2%, Amazon (AMZN) fell 1%, and Microsoft (MSFT) ticked lower. Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA) each rose less than 1%.
Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares jumped 5% after the FDA approved the pharmaceutical firm’s popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, to treat a serious liver disease.
Crypto-related stocks were losing ground as the price of bitcoin tumbled. Major bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR) and crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) were each down about 2%.
Bitcoin was at $115,200, down from an overnight high of around $118,000. The digital currency hit a record high of $124,500 on Thursday before falling sharply as market participants scaled back their expectations for a rate cut.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the performance of the dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, rose 0.2% to 98.05, after slipping to a three-week low on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, was at 4.30% this morning, down from 4.32% at Friday’s close. The yield traded as low as 4.20% last week before the disappointing inflation report.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, slipped 0.5% to $62.50, extending a slump that has taken them to their lowest level since early June. Gold futures rose 0.1% to $3,385 an ounce.
Winklevoss Twins’ Crypto Trading Platform Files for IPO
19 minutes ago
Gemini Space Station, the cryptocurrency trading platform founded in 2014 by famed cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has registered to launch an initial public offering.
In a filing with regulators, Gemini said that the number of shares and the price of the offering have not yet been determined.
The company said that it has had a lifetime trading volume of $285 billion and boasted more than $18 billion worth of crypto under custody as of June 30.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images
The Winklevoss twins wrote in the prospectus that with crypto, “a new Golden Age is upon us.” They said the financial markets “are moving onchain” and that “digital assets are profoundly changing the way we transact and store value.” They added that “this is the crypto frontier” and that Gemini is a “Super App” for it.
The company noted that it intended to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “GEMI.”
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy Approved to Treat Liver Disease
1 hr 17 min ago
Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares jumped in premarket trading after the Food and Drug Administration approved the pharmaceutical firm’s popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, to treat a serious liver disease.
The Denmark-based firm reported the FDA said Wegovy could be used for adults suffering from noncirrhotic metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, who have moderate to advanced liver fibrosis, along with eating less and exercising more.
Novo Nordisk Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange noted that the decision means Wegovy is the only GLP-1 obesity medicine that has received regulatory approval to treat MASH. He explained that one in three overweight or obese people suffer from it, with some 22 million Americans among them. He added that Wegovy not only stopped the disease activity, it also reversed liver damage.
The company announced that Wegovy would be available immediately in the U.S. for the treatment of MASH.
Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images
The approval is welcome news to Novo Nordisk investors, who have seen the U.S.-listed shares slump as competition from others in the weight-loss category has siphoned away sales of Wegovy.
U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk were up more than 4% in recent premarket trading. At the close of trading Friday, the shares were down nearly 40% year-to-date.
Major Index Futures Slightly Lower
1 hr 45 min ago
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down fractionally.
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S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1%.
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Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.2%.
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