Stocks are flat as Wall Street looks to cap off a winning month: Live updates

Stocks were little changed Monday as Wall Street kicked off a busy earnings week and looked to finish up July on a positive note.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%, or 39 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were flat.

Stocks have rallied this month, with the S&P 500 up 2.9% and on pace 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% and is on track for its fifth straight winning month.

The blue-chip Dow has jumped 3% in July. Last week, the index posted a 13-day advance that matched its longest streak of gains going back to 1987.

Investors in recent weeks have grown increasingly more hopeful about a soft landing scenario as economic data shows ongoing strength in the labor market and cooling inflation. Second-quarter earnings also continue to tickle in better than expected.

“Earnings coming in not as bad as feared, clearly that’s a good thing for the market,” said Independent Advisor Alliance’s Chris Zaccarelli. “Part of the reason the market’s rallied this whole month is that in addition to the good news to the economy that we’ve seen all year, we’re also seeing that corporate earnings really seem to have not been impacted as much as people have been concerned about.”

While earnings season is more than halfway through, the chief investment officer is keeping an eye on Thursday’s reports from Amazon and Apple, which could “set the tone” for the rest of the market.

“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,” he said.

Last week, the Federal Reserve hiked rates to their highest level in more than 22 years after passing a much-anticipated quarter-point hike. Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will make data-driven decisions on a “meeting-by-meeting” basis.

Along with earnings, investors remain focused on Friday’s jobs report. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy to have added 200,000 jobs in July. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 in June.