“Demand remains uncertain as current monetary policy and other factors make companies reluctant to invest,” said Timothy Fiore, chairman of the manufacturing research committee at the Institute for Supply Management.
Shares of oil and gas producers led the market lower after oil prices tumbled. The price of a barrel of U.S. crude fell 3.7% as a slowing economy meant fuel demand growth slowed. International standard Brent crude also fell 3.4% despite moves by Saudi Arabia and other producers over the weekend to support prices.
Halliburton fell 5.7% and Exxon Mobil dropped 2.9%, helping to overshadow bigger moves by some of Wall Street’s biggest names.
Nvidia rose another 3.4% after unveiling new products and services over the weekend, bringing its gains this year to 128.9%. The company has been riding high on explosive gains so far as it fends off criticism that investors are getting too enthusiastic about the prospects for AI. Nvidia has been by far the driving force behind the S&P 500’s gains.
The gains were even bigger in another corner of Wall Street, accustomed to stomach-churning ups and downs.
GameStop soared 34.9%, in a move reminiscent of the early 2021 surge that rocked Wall Street and brought the term “meme stock” into modern parlance.GameStop’s surge came after a Reddit account linked to a central figure in the 2021 episode said the company held 5 million shares, plus options to buy more.The position was worth $181.4 million, according to a post Sunday night.
The post caused a stir online because it was the same Reddit account that posted a similar screenshot of a large holding in GameStop in 2021. The post sent shares of the struggling video game retailer soaring far beyond what many critics on Wall Street called reasonable.
“Meme stocks” has become a catchphrase for companies whose shares are driven by the enthusiasm of small investors rather than any fundamental change in their business prospects. Other meme stocks also rose on Monday, including AMC Entertainment, up 17.7%.
In a more traditional move for the market, shares of Stericycle rose 14.8% after Waste Management said it would buy medical-waste treatment company Stericycle for $5.8 billion in cash and assume $1.4 billion in net debt. Waste Management shares fell 4.8%.
Hertz Global’s shares fell 7.3% after the company said its chief operating officer had stepped down and it had appointed a new chief financial officer.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.40% from 4.50% late on Friday. The yield on the two-year note, which more closely reflects expectations of Federal Reserve action, fell to 4.82% from 4.88%.
Investors are hoping that the U.S. economy will slow just enough to keep inflationary pressures in check, but not so much as to trigger a recession, which could allow the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rates.
The Federal Reserve has kept the federal funds rate at its highest level in the last 20 years, intentionally slowing the economy and causing investment prices to fall in the hopes of suppressing high inflation once and for all.
Several highly-watched economic reports are due to be released this week, which could cause yields to move sharply.
The U.S. government will report on Tuesday how many job ads companies had open at the end of April, and on Friday it will release its latest monthly report on overall growth in employment and worker wages.
Among international stock markets, India’s Sensex index rose 3.4% after the country wrapped up a six-week-old general election with most exit polls predicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi would win a third consecutive 10-year term in power.
Meanwhile, Mexican stocks fell 5.3 percent after Claudia Scheinbaum declared victory in the country’s presidential election.
Elsewhere around the world, stock indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia, with Shanghai and London being the exceptions.
_
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
