Stocks fall, pressured by higher rates and rising oil prices: Live updates

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading in New York City.

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Stocks slipped on Monday as Wall Street struggled to keep the momentum from Friday’s rally amid headwinds from rising rates and higher oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 274 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 slid 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.5%.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 4.01%. That marks the first time since August that the yield topped 4%. Higher oil prices also weighed, as tensions in the Middle East remain high. U.S. crude climbed nearly 2% to more than $75 per barrel.

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, also pointed to a pullback in third-quarter earnings expectations as a source of market weakness to start the week.

Stovall theorized that these revisions could be due to management teams tempering expectations so they can beat earnings forecasts once again. The strategist noted that this been a pattern in the past, with actual results exceeding end-of-quarter estimates in 60 of the last 62 quarters.

“I like to say that because the earnings bar is now set so low, rarely does one injure themselves falling out of a basement window,” he added.

Monday’s moves come after a bumpy week for stocks that saw the major averages grind out modest gains. The S&P 500 added 0.2% for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite inched up 0.1% and the Dow added 0.1%.

It was the fourth winning week in a row for all three averages, helped by a stronger-than-expected jobs report on Friday that gave more support to the idea that the Federal Reserve may pull off a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy. The Dow closed at a record high after the report.

On the economic front, key releases in the week ahead include the Federal Reserve meeting minutes on Wednesday and the consumer price index report on Thursday. Earnings season also starts to heat up, with results from Delta Air Lines and JPMorgan Chase due out Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Source – Middle east monitor