S&P 500 rises slightly as benchmark tries to snap two-week funk: Live updates

The S&P 500 ticked up Monday as Wall Street failed to shake off a rough start to August.

The broad market index added 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded down 28 points, or just under 0.1%.

Shares of Tesla fell nearly 2% after the company announced price reductions for certain Model Y units in China.

The moves come as stocks have struggled to sustain their 2023 rally in the late summer. Last week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 0.3% and 1.9%, respectively. It was the Nasdaq Composite’s first two-week losing streak of the year.

The Dow, however, gained 0.62% for its fourth positive week in five.

This week could be driven by insights into the state of the U.S. consumer, with earnings reports due from Home Depot, Target and Walmart. Retail sales data from July is also due out on Tuesday morning.

The earnings reports are coming after a mixed batch of inflation reports last week, which show that price increased have eased from their post-pandemic peak but are still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

The market currently is “not quite a midsummer night’s dream,” Oppenheimer chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus wrote in a Monday note.

However, he added that “some retracement of the broad market since July 31 suggests to us a pause that refreshes has likely occurred, rather than the end of the bull market.”

“A ‘trim’ and perhaps a ‘haircut’ is [likely] what has thus far taken place. Such a retracement we feel is more than likely healthy, rather than marking the beginning of an end to the bull market that emerged from last year’s oversold market conditions,” said Stoltzus.