FX.co ★ US Stocks Start Week Mixed

US stocks ended Monday mixed as weakness in chipmakers weighed against gains in other sectors. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% and the Nasdaq 100 lost more than 1%, while the Dow edged slightly higher. AI infrastructure names led the declines amid ongoing uncertainty over future returns in the space. Investor enthusiasm around upcoming IPOs from large language model developers helped, but was not enough to counter mounting concerns that capital spending on chips may have gone too far. Micron, Marvell, and SanDisk each fell between 6% and 10%. Nvidia eased 1% ahead of its earnings report due after the close on Wednesday, seen as the next key catalyst for the AI trade.

Energy prices retreated but stayed elevated after the US vowed to further isolate Iran economically. Persistently high energy costs are reinforcing worries over inflation, amplifying the impact of large fiscal deficits and the Treasury’s bond buyback program. Even so, credit card networks recovered some ground after last week’s pullback, with Visa and Mastercard each gaining about 2%.