Stocks slide to start August after best month since 2020

Stocks on Wall Street gave up early gains and closed slightly lower Monday as investors began another busy week of company earnings and economic reports.

The S&P 500 gave up an early gain to end down 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% and the Nasdaq fell 0.2%. Smaller company stocks also gave back some of their recent gains, nudging the Russell 2000 0.1% lower.

Bond yields mostly fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, fell to 2.60% from 2.65% late Friday.

August’s subdued opening follows a solid rally for stocks last month: July was the best month for the S&P 500 index since November 2020. But this week’s array of economic reports and company earnings has left traders “a little cautious,” said Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist at Ally Invest.

“Investors are still assessing where we break from here — further to the upside or reverse course,” Bell said.

The benchmark S&P 500 index fell 11.66 points to 4,118.63. It’s coming off a 9.1% gain in July, but remains down 13.6% for the year.

The Dow lost 46.73 points to close at 32,798.40, while the Nasdaq slid 21.71 points to 12,368.98. The Russell 2000 ended down 1.92 points at 1,883.31.

Banks, health care companies and tech stocks were among the biggest weights on the S&P 500. Jpmorgan Chase fell 1%, Unitedhealth Group dropped 1.3% and Intuit slid 1.7%.

U.S. crude oil prices fell 4.8%, dragging energy stocks lower. Exxon Mobil lost 2.5%.

Those losses outweighed solid gains by retailers and consumer products makers. Target rose 1.3% and Procter & Gamble rose 2.9%.