FX.co ★ US Stocks Trade Muted on Monday

US stock indices were little changed on Monday, consolidating recent gains as investors weighed the interest-rate outlook for the remainder of the year. The S&P 500 and Dow hovered near record highs, while the Nasdaq 100 edged slightly lower. Futures pricing showed a narrow majority of market participants expecting the Federal Reserve to keep rates on hold at its meeting next month.

July’s nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly declined, challenging the prevailing narrative of a robust labor market that many hawkish FOMC members had cited following multiple dissents at the central bank’s last meeting. At the same time, fuel prices stayed below recent highs, even as traders monitored the risk of prolonged oil supply disruptions from the Persian Gulf.

In equities, major technology names were mostly higher after several brokers pointed to strong demand for cloud services. Meta, Microsoft, and SpaceX each gained around 1%. In contrast, Intel slid more than 3% after announcing plans for a $15 billion stock offering, while Apple fell 2.5% following a downgrade to “underperform” from Jefferies.