The New York Stock Exchange’s first trading session of the second half of the year ended indecisively on Monday morning following the release of mixed manufacturing data.
As of the close of morning trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1% to 39,104.9 points, while the Nasdaq Stock Average was down 0.1% to 17,744.7 points.
Major indexes were little changed from recent record levels after the release of data that painted a fairly mixed picture for the U.S. economy.
The contraction in U.S. manufacturing expanded slightly in June, reflecting continued weakness in demand, according to a survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released this morning.
Last month the index was 48.5, down 0.2 points from 48.7 in May.
Just before the ISM was released, S&P Global said its manufacturing index came in at 51.6 last month, up from a final reading of 51.3 in May.
In both surveys, the 50-point level marks the dividing line between increased and decreased activity.
As a reminder, the U.S. stock market has just come out of a long bull market, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting new all-time highs last week.
After such an uptrend (Nasdaq is +18% this year), the major indexes are taking a breather today as investors look for ways to push prices even higher.
With the political situation in France moving in a rather reassuring direction, attention will be focused on economic data this week, which is shortened by one day.
Wall Street will also be closed on Thursday for the US Independence Day holiday.
Among the data on the agenda is the US employment report for June due to be released on Friday, which will provide an indication of how the world’s leading economy is doing and also provide information on the Fed’s intentions.
If these indicators perform well, investors could temporarily turn their attention away from Europe and send stock indexes to new highs.
Boeing shares rose 1.8% after it reached a definitive agreement to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for an enterprise value of $4.7 billion.
Meta suffered a 1% loss after the European Commission concluded that the company’s “pay or consent” advertising model did not comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In foreign exchange markets, the euro rebounded sharply against the dollar, approaching 1.0725, while U.S. Treasury yields continued to hover above 4.48%.
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