By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks weakened and benchmark Treasury yields inched lower as investors embarked on a week of accelerated economic data releases in the aftermath of the longest government shutdown in United States history.
Chipmaker Nvidia is due to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday, and the artificial intelligence bellwether’s results will be scrutinized for signs of waning demand in the sector that has driven much of the stock market’s rally over recent months.
All three major U.S. stock indexes churned modestly lower in early trading.
Last week, lawmakers reached an agreement to end what had become the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown, during which an absence of official economic data helped dampen expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would implement its third rate cut of the year at the conclusion of next month’s policy meeting.
To make up for lost time, this week promises a slew of pent-up reports, including the Labor Department’s September employment data slated for Friday.
“The big macro issue out there is we’re going to start to get a dump of economic data with the government now open,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. “There’s a great deal of uncertainty about what to expect from several months of data and over the period of the next several weeks, that’s going to be a big focus.”
Third-quarter earnings season is winding down, with over 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 83% have delivered consensus-beating results, according to LSEG data. Aside from Nvidia’s hotly anticipated results on Wednesday, retailers Home Depot, Target and Walmart, among others, should shed light on the state of consumer demand.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 88.54 points, or 0.19%, to 47,057.29, the S&P 500 fell 8.70 points, or 0.12%, to 6,725.70 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 11.24 points, or 0.04%, to 22,891.45.
European stocks slipped as market participants shied away from making big bets ahead of long-deferred U.S. jobs data.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 2.35 points, or 0.24%, to 993.08.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.49%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 11.70 points, or 0.51%.
Emerging market stocks rose 2.37 points, or 0.17%, to 1,387.98. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.12%, to 714.73, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 52.62 points, or 0.10%, to 50,323.91.
Treasury yields dipped amid AI growth concerns, as traders evaluated whether the Fed will cut interest rates next month as delayed inflation and employment reports become available.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.3 basis points to 4.135%, from 4.148% late on Friday.
The 30-year bond yield fell 1.3 basis points to 4.7328% from 4.746% late on Friday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 0.4 basis points to 3.619%, from 3.614% late on Friday.
The resumption of official U.S. economic data put currency traders on guard, particularly in the aftermath of some non-government data such as ADP’s National Employment index, which hinted at softening in the labor market.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.14% to 99.46, with the euro down 0.2% at $1.1597.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.42% to 155.19.
Crude prices inched lower after plunging about 4% in the previous session, as investors weighed worries of oversupply with looming sanctions against Russia’s Lukoil.
U.S. crude fell 0.3% to $59.91 a barrel and Brent fell to $64.22 per barrel, down 0.26% on the day.
Gold inched lower in opposition to the firming greenback. Spot gold fell 0.36% to $4,064.43 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.5% to $4,067.20 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London and Tom Westbrook in Singapore, Editing by William Maclean)
