Stocks waver on Wall Street ahead of busy week of earnings

NEW YORK — Stocks turned mixed in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday as investors prepare for another busy week of corporate earnings.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 12:41 p.m. Eastern. Even though the index was roughly split between gainers and losers, declines in several tech giants including Facebook, Google’s parent copmany and Microsoft pulled the overall index lower.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,080 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%. Small-company stocks bucked the downward trend and moved higher. The Russell 2000 edged up 0.1%.

Energy companies made solid gains. Chevron rose 1.8%.

Retailers, travel-related companies and others that rely on direct consumer spending also gained ground. the gains. Amazon rose 1.1% and Carnival rose 5.4%.

Losses from some big communications companies tempered gains elsewhere in the market. Facebook’s parent, Meta, fell 4.3%.

Technology stocks, which have have a strong impact on the broader market because of their outsized values, were mixed.

Bond yields were relatively stable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 1.93% from late Friday.

Wall Street is coming off of two weeks of gains following a January stumble that served partially as a “pressure relief valve,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide.

“Some of the emotion that we’ve been dealing with in the first several weeks of the year has started to ease,” he said. “You almost needed that; the expectations had been so high.”

Investors are still gauging the impact of rising inflation on businesses and consumers while remaining cautious about the Federal Reserve’s plan to fight inflation. Investors will get another key update on inflation Thursday with the Labor Department’s report on consumer prices for January.

The Fed’s plan to raise interest rates to fight inflation. Investors expect the first hikes in March and are wary about the pace and quantity of rate increases in 2022.

Investors have another busy week reviewing the latest corporate report cards. Meat producer Tyson Foods rose 10.5% after reporting strong results.

Several big companies are on deck this week to report their results, including Pfizer on Tuesday and Walt Disney on Wednesday. Twitter and Coca-Cola will report on Thursday.

Outside of earnings, several companies gained ground on buyout news. Spirit Airlines jumped 12.6% after Frontier Airlines’ parent company agreed to buy the carrier in a deal worth $2.9 billion.

Peloton rose 16.5% following reports that the exercise bike and treadmill company is a buyout target for companies including Nike and Amazon. The company has been on a roller-coaster ride since the pandemic began. Its stock surged more than 400% in 2020 as COVID-19 forced lockdowns and shifted the workout trend from the gym to home. It spend 2021 giving back nearly all of those gains as businesses reopened and people started heading back to gyms.

Shares have been choppy this year for Peloton, especially following reports in January that its was temporarily halting production of its connected fitness products amid waning consumer demand. Activist investor Blackwells Capital asked the company to remove CEO John Foley and consider selling the company just a few days after those reports.