Wall Street trading day closes with mixed results

NEW YORK — Wall Street held relatively steady Monday following its latest record-setting week.

The S&P 500 slipped 4.77 points, or 0.1%, to 5,021.84 after closing Friday above the 5,000 level for the first time. Most of the stocks in the index rose, but losses for Microsoft and other tech companies weighed on the index.

The weakness for tech also pulled the Nasdaq composite down by 48.12, or 0.3%, to 15,942.54. Earlier in the day, it had been hovering just above its all-time closing high set in 2021. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, rose 125.69, or 0.3%, to 38.797.38 to set its latest record.

Conditions were calm across markets, and yields were also stable in the bond market. The next big event for the market could be today’s update on inflation across the United States, which economists expect to show a drop back below the 3% level.

Shares of Diamondback Energy climbed 9.4% after it said it would buy Endeavor Energy Resources in a deal valued at roughly $26 billion, including Endeavor’s debt. Diamondback is using both cash and stock to pay for the purchase of the privately held exploration and production company.

Trimble shares rose 4.2% after the technology provider reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, whose products are used in the agriculture, construction, mapping and other industries, shook off an earlier loss after it also gave a forecast for revenue over 2024 that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates.

Big companies in the S&P 500 have mostly been reporting better results than expected for the final three months of 2023. More than two-thirds of the companies in the index have already reported their results, but several big names are still to come this week. They include Coca-Cola today, Kraft Heinz on Wednesday and Southern Co. on Thursday.

The smallest companies in the market, meanwhile, are still in the relatively early days of their profit reporting season. But they’ve been beating analysts’ expectations by even more than their big rivals, according to Bank of America strategists.

Worries have grown about how top-heavy the stock market has become, where the seven biggest companies have accounted for a disproportionate amount of the S&P 500’s rally to a record. If more companies aside from the group known as the Magnificent Seven can deliver strong profit growth, it could soften the criticism that the market has become too expensive.

Another worry for the market has been uncertainty about just how much danger lurks for the economy in the loans and other holdings banks have on their balance sheets that are tied to commercial real estate.

The widespread expectation, even among top U.S. government officials, is that weakness for office buildings and other commercial projects will mean at least some pain for banks. But no one can say how much for sure.

That’s why so much focus has been on New York Community Bancorp recently. It shocked investors two weeks ago when it announced a surprise loss for its latest quarter. Some of the pain was due to its acquisition of Signature Bank during the industry’s mini-crisis last year. But worries about commercial real estate also played a role.

New York Community Bancorp’s stock has roughly halved since that surprise report, but it held a bit steadier on Monday. It edged down by 0.2%.

An index measuring stock prices across the regional banking industry rose 1.8%.

In the bond market, yields were moving very little. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped from 4.18% late Friday to 4.16% Monday.

The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Federal Reserve, held at 4.48%, where it was late Friday.