Stocks end a bumpy day mostly lower, still notch August gain

Stocks ended lower on Wall Street Monday, but the market still closed out August with its fifth monthly gain in a row.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent after spending much of the day wavering between gains and losses of less than 0.1 percent. The modest decline, which snapped the index’s seven-day winning streak, came as losses in financial, industrial and energy companies outweighed gains in technology stocks.

The benchmark index finished the month with a 7 percent gain, making it the S&P 500’s best August since 1986. It’s now up 8.3 percent this year. The Nasdaq composite, meanwhile, added to its recent string of milestones, closing at an all-time high.

The market’s latest strong monthly finish extends a remarkable comeback for Wall Street since the coronavirus pandemic knocked financial markets into a steep skid and the global economy into recession.

Encouraging economic data as broad swaths of the economy have reopened this summer have helped stoke investor optimism about a recovery. The question is whether that’s going to be enough to keep the market moving higher when so much uncertainty re3,500.31. mains about the pandemic’s lasting impact on companies and consumers.

“People need to be careful here because what we have is an exuberant rally sitting on the foundation of a shaky recovery,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds. He added that there will likely be a market correction “that brings us back down to Earth.”

The S&P 500 fell 7.70 points to The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 223.82 points, or 0.8 percent, to 28,430.05.

The Nasdaq rose 79.82 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,775.46. The index, heavily weighted with tech stocks, has led the market’s rebound this year. It finished August with a 9.6 percent gain and it’s up 31.2 percent for the year. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks fell 16.47 points, or 1 percent, to 1,561.88.