U.S. Stocks Close Mixed; Dow Drifts Lower, While Nasdaq Hits New High

U.S. stocks closed on a mixed note on Monday as investors largely stayed cautious and selective with their moves.

Concerns about the spread of the delta variant Covid-19 in Europea and Asia, and the resultant fresh restrictions on travel in several countries weighed on sentiment.

Also, with some crucial economic data, including reports on private sector employment, non-farm payrolls employment, manufacturing activity, consumer confidence, and factory orders, due later in the week, traders were a bit wary of creating fresh long positions.

Still, it turned out to be a fairly good session of technology stocks, and the Nasdaq composite index went on to hit a new record high, even as the Dow slid, weighed down by a sell-off at the Boeing counter.

The Dow ended the session with a loss of 150.57 points or 0.44 percent at 34,283.27, nearly 100 points off the day’s low of 34,186.13. The S&P 500 ended up by 9.91 points or 0.23 percent at 4,290.61, a new closing high, while the Nasdaq settled at a record closing high of 14,500.51 with a gain of 140.12 points or 0.98 percent, after scaling a new peak at 14,505.19.

Tech stock Facebook climbed by about 4 percent after a federal court dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against the social media company.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington dismissed the complaints filed last year by FTC and state attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James. The complaint was seeking to break Facebook’s monopoly in social networking, which could have resulted in divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp.

In the complaint, FTC and the states had claimed that Facebook violated antitrust laws by buying photo-sharing app Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp to eliminate any competition and continue its monopoly.

However, in the filing, the court states that the FTC did not prove Facebook controls over 60 percent of the market -a monopoly.

Shares of Nvidia rose by about 5 percent on reports the company has got the nod for the acquisition of ARM for a consideration of $40 billion.

Intel, Microsoft and Apple closed with strong gains.

Boeing shares drifted down by about 3 percent on reports the aircraft maker is unlikely to receive certification for its 777X long-range aircraft untill the middle or late 2023.

Bank stocks were weak, weighed down by falling bond yields. Energy stocks dropped due to lower crude oil prices amid concerns about energy demand and on cautioun ahead the OPEC+ meet, scheduled to take place on Thursday.

In overseas trading, European stocks closed notably lower on Monday, weighed down by concerns about fresh travel-related restrictions due to the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 in several parts of the continent.

According to reports, Portugal, Spain and Germany have issued new travel restrictions, aiming to limit the spread of the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 declined 0.88 percent, Germany’s DAX ended 0.34 percent down and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.98 percent. The pan European Stoxx 600 slid 0.59 percent.

Asian stocks ended on a muted note Monday, as inflation continued to be a worry and a spike in coronavirus cases across several countries in the region over the weekend led to lockdowns and restrictions in some areas.

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