US stocks dropped on Monday as long-term Treasury yields extended their recent climb and oil ticked higher. Chipmakers notched gains as details of Anthropic's surging sales growth stoked bullish sentiment around AI.
The S&P 500 Index fell 0.5% in New York and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index erased an earlier advance to end the day down 0.2%, even as semiconductor manufacturers including Intel Corp. and Micron Technology, Inc. climbed. The declines marked a second day of losses for both indexes, and came as brent crude rose to $91 a barrel and the US 10-year yield edged higher to 4.73%.
New flareups in the Middle East were a focus for traders Monday. The prospects for peace suffered a fresh setback with President Donald Trump saying he's not interested in extending the expiring memorandum of understanding with Iran and fighting flaring anew in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the war-fueled rise in oil contributed to inflation concerns that have pushed up benchmark Treasury yields.
“The situation in the Middle East is unsettling, and the yield on the US 10-year note has pushed back above 4.7%,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co, said. “In fact, With long-term yields remaining elevated even after last week's benign inflation data, it is something that is creating some headwinds for investors.”
Tech shares got a lift following a report late Friday that Anthropic's second-quarter revenue jumped at least 14-fold from a year earlier. The Claude chatbot maker posted preliminary revenue of more than $11.5 billion, plus positive adjusted operating income. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks chipmakers, gained 1.6%.
Elsewhere, the release this week of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes may provide a catalyst for investors, allowing traders “to get a better understanding of the Fed's behavior in a lower communication environment,” JPMorgan strategists wrote in a note Monday.
Beyond the minutes, the relatively light macro data week could mean the “positive tech inertia” may continue into Nvidia Corp.'s earnings next week, according to the strategists.
Traders will also eye more clues on the state of the consumer with earnings from Walmart Inc., Home Depot Inc. and Target Corp. in the coming days, especially after US retail sales fell by the most in more than a year last week.
“What we've seen is maybe some inconsistent discussions in terms of how resilient that consumer is, so that was one crack we started to notice,” Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategies at RBC Capital Markets, said on Bloomberg Television. “The theme of resiliency, I think that is going to be a hard one to break even as companies are acknowledging maybe some cracks happening.”
The Cboe Volatility Index rose above 15 after hitting its lowest level of 2026 on Friday.
In single-stock moves, Nike, Inc. closed 4% lower after UBS said the much-anticipated upward turn in the company's brand momentum remains elusive. L3Harris Technologies, Inc. slumped 4.6% after the defense contractor abruptly replaced Chief Executive Officer Christopher Kubasik following a conduct review.
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Sectors to watch
- The consumer sector ahead of earnings this week, with Home Depot Inc. reporting before the bell on Tuesday, following soft retail sales data last week
- Homebuilders and real estate stocks with housing and pending home sales data coming on Tuesday
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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