Wall Street finishes mixed as oil jumps and earnings come into focus

what happened

US stocks finished Monday unevenly, Newsmetry API reported, as crude prices climbed and technology shares weakened ahead of third-quarter results and a busy run of economic releases. US crude futures gained more than 2%, while Brent traded above $106 a barrel after deadly weekend strikes hit Riyadh’s international airport. The attacks outweighed expectations of additional supply after US President Donald Trump praised new Russian diesel exports and discussed a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire covering energy targets.

Investors are now turning to corporate results and economic data. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase are due to report early Tuesday, while LSEG IBES data put expected third-quarter S&P 500 earnings growth at 30.6%. September consumer and producer inflation readings from the United States, along with retail-sales figures, are also scheduled for release this week.

At 2:16 p.m. ET (1816 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 175.51 points, or 0.34%, at 51,830.46. The S&P 500 fell 10.51 points, or 0.13%, to 7,801.03, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 126.08 points, or 0.46%, to 27,240.09. Energy led all 11 S&P 500 sectors with a 1.4% gain. Communication services rose 1.3%, helped by Meta, which advanced more than 4%. Technology and consumer discretionary were the only declining sectors, falling about 1% and 0.6%, respectively.

Chip stocks were particularly weak: the Philadelphia semiconductor index lost 2.6% after reaching a three-week low. Chipotle Mexican Grill dropped 5% after Starbucks said it was not purchasing the burrito chain. Microsoft gained 0.9%; earlier, its market value moved above $4 trillion for the first time in a year after the company announced plans for a major rollout of its own AI chips. Salesforce added 1.3% after BofA Global Research raised its rating to “buy” from “underperform,” while eBay rose more than 4% after Morgan Stanley named it a top pick.

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said the central bank should move “relatively quickly” toward a restrictive policy stance to contain inflation. She said price pressures had become more broad-based and were beginning to affect companies’ pricing plans. CME’s FedWatch tool showed markets assigning only a 19% probability to a rate increase this month. The US Treasury market was shut for Columbus Day, but investors remained concerned about bond yields, which had recently reached 24-year highs as more expensive energy fueled inflation worries.

Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York, said investors were cautious because bonds were providing little direction and because major economic reports and bank earnings were approaching. On the NYSE, advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by 1.01 to 1, with 122 new highs and 214 new lows. Nasdaq breadth was negative, with 1,866 advancers and 2,828 decliners, a 1.52-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 recorded 10 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite posted 47 new highs and 277 new lows.

why it matters

Higher oil prices are reviving inflation concerns just as investors assess elevated bond yields, upcoming bank earnings and data that could shape expectations for Federal Reserve policy.

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