Dow Rises, Nasdaq Falls as Chip Stocks Slide at the Close

Wall Street closed mixed on Monday. The Dow rose. The Nasdaq fell. Chip stocks took the hit for a fifth straight session, and oil climbed again above $106 a barrel for Brent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.38 percent to close at 51,851. The S&P 500 slipped 0.06 percent to 7,807.24. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.44 percent to 27,246. The bond market was closed for Columbus Day, so the 10-year Treasury yield stayed at the 5.24 percent it reached on Friday.

Chips keep sliding

Technology was the weak spot again. The iShares Semiconductor ETF fell 2.5 percent and was on track for a fifth straight down day, Barron's reported. Micron fell about 3.9 percent after reports of progress by China's CXMT on next-generation memory chips raised fresh competition worries. SanDisk dropped more than 6 percent. Lumentum fell almost 10 percent, Semtech lost about 10 percent, and Marvell fell 3.4 percent.

The selling was narrow, not broad. Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose on the day, and roughly 330 stocks in the index were set to close higher. Salesforce lifted the Dow after a double upgrade from Bank of America. Communication services and defensive consumer stocks led the gainers.

Oil and gold

Crude rose as fighting in the Middle East kept supply worries alive. West Texas Intermediate settled up 2.1 percent at $93.74 a barrel. Brent added 1.8 percent to $106.65. Gold fell 0.64 percent to $4,167.56.

Crypto followed the cautious mood. Bitcoin dropped 1.6 percent to $82,311 after Russia kept striking Ukrainian energy sites despite President Trump's weekend claim of an energy ceasefire, Dow Jones reporting via Morningstar said. That is a sharp change from this morning, when bitcoin sat flat near $82,885.

Why it matters

Monday was the fourth anniversary of the bull market that began on October 12, 2022. The S&P 500 has gained more than 120 percent since then. The question for the rest of the week is whether earnings can hold that run at a 5.24 percent Treasury yield, with oil above $100 and inflation data still to come.

What is next

Earnings season opens in force on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all report before the bell, along with Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group. The September Consumer Price Index lands on Wednesday and the Producer Price Index on Thursday. Both will test whether traders still believe rate cuts are coming this year.