Stocks opened flattish on Monday, although the S&P 500 is hovering near Friday’s record closing high.
If the blue-chip stock index closes in positive territory on Monday, it will surpass the 3,026-point record it set on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite also finished last week at a record high, closing at 8,330 points. The Dow was 0.6% off its most recent record at Friday’s close.
At the start of the new week, the Dow and the S&P 500 opened flat. A few minutes into trading, the Dow was up 0.1%, or 28 points, while the S&P was down 0.2%.
The Nasdaq slipped 0.1% at the open, and extended its losses to 0.5% shortly after.
It’s set to be a busy week for investors, with the Federal Reserve at the top of the watch list. The central bank is kicking off its July meeting on Tuesday, which will culminate in its interest rate decision on Wednesday at 2 pm ET.
Expectations for a rate cut have been fully priced in for weeks. The chances of a quarter-percentage-point cut are at 77%, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.
But first: trade. US trade representatives are in Shanghai this for a two-day meeting Tuesday and Wednesday with their Chinese peers.
“If we see promises from the Chinese to deliver on more purchases of US agricultural goods and for the US to allow American companies to sell some goods to Huawei, the meetings would be viewed as positive,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a research note.
Since the G-20 summit in Japan last month, China and the US have vowed not to slap additional tariffs on each other’s imports. But the trade spat still remains far from resolved.
