Stocks end mixed as losses for Big Tech weigh on market

Stocks wound up a mixed bag on Wall Street Monday as losses for several Big Tech companies checked gains elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.5%. Microsoft fell 1.7% and Apple gave back 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2% and a measure of small-company stocks jumped 1.5%. Treasury yields continued to climb. The yield on the 10year Treasury note rose to 1.49%, its highest level since late June. That helped send bank stocks mostly higher. Energy companies also rose as the price of U.S. crude oil climbed 2%.

The technology sector, which carries an outsized weight within the S&P 500, fell 0.9% overall. Microsoft fell 1.7%.

A measure of small-company stocks did better than the major indexes in a sign that investors were still confident about future economic growth. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%.

Markets have had a choppy month so far and the S&P 500 is on pace to shed 1.6% in September, which would mark the first monthly loss since January. Investors have been trying to gauge just how much room the economy has to grow amid waves of COVID-19 crimping consumer spending and job growth while inflation remains a concern.

The economic recovery started strong in 2021, but analysts and economists have been tempering their forecasts for the rest of the year. In a survey being released Monday, the National Association for Business Economics found that its panel now expects fullyear economic growth of 5.6%, down from a forecast for 6.7% growth in NABE’s previous survey in May. However, economists raised their forecast for 2022 economic growth to 3.5% from a previous outlook of 2.8%.

Consumer spending has been the key driver for the economic recovery and it has been crimped in part by rising cases of COVID-19 because of the highly contagious delta variant. Investors will get a glimpse into how that could continue to play out on Tuesday when The Conference Board releases its consumer confidence index for September.

Wall Street has been facing an otherwise quiet period for corporate news as companies prepare to start reporting their latest quarterly results in the next few weeks. The next round of corporate statements could give investors a better sense of the actual impact supply chain and labor disruptions are having on sales and profits.

RICHARD DREW — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday. Stocks are off to a mixed start on Wall Street Monday as gains for banks and energy companies are checked by drops in the technology sector. The S&P 500was off 0.4% in the early going, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%, however, and a measure of small-company stocks was also higher.