Monday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Finish Mixed As Traders Nervously Await Earnings Season

U.S. stocks finished mixed on Monday, following a week of outsized gains, as nervous investors prepare for a corporate earnings season that will likely reflect the impact of coronavirus pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 328.6 points to 23,390.77, while the S&P 500 fell 28.19 points to 2,761.63 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 38.85 points to 8,192.42.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 4.39 billion shares with 732 issues advancing, 10 setting new highs, and 2,299 declining, with eight setting new lows.

Active movers were led by Ford Motor (F), SCWorx Corp. (WORX) and General Electric (GE).

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies agreed to reduce production by 9.7 million barrels per day, the single largest cut in output ever to shore up oil prices which have plunged more than 40% in early March when Russia and Saudi Arabia commenced a price war.

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the deal, citing it “will save hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in the United States.”

The U.S. now has at least 550,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the highest total of any country in the world, with more than 21,000 deaths.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was cautiously optimistic the virus spread was slowing in the U.S.

“The various mitigation efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 seem to be working. What comes next is very much up in the air,” said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. “With the timing of the reopening of the economy now being debated and the economic effects of the engineered shutdown still to be determined, we urge investors to remain wary but watchful as events unfold.”

However, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari warned that in the absence of an effective therapy or a vaccine for the coronavirus, the U.S. may face 18 months of rolling shutdowns.

“We’re looking around the world. As they relax the economic controls, the virus flares back up again,” Kashkari said Sunday. “We could have these waves of flareups, controls, flareups and controls until we actually get a therapy or a vaccine. I think we should all be focusing on an 18-month strategy for our health care system and our economy.”

“The [stock] market is digesting some very savory returns,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “We were up 25% from trough to the most recent peak. While some people might say we’re at the beginning of a new bull market, I think we have to take a wait-and-see attitude.”

Overnight in Asia, markets were lower. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.49%, and Japan’s Nikkei-225 dropped 2.33%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng market was closed Monday.

European markets were closed for the holiday.

Crude oil futures slipped 0.31% at $22.69 per barrel, Brent crude rose 1.07% at $32.08. Gold futures edged up 0.7%.

The euro slipped 0.19% at $1.0915 while the pound sterling gained 0.56% at $1.2486.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury gained 2.74% to 0.749% while yield on the 30-year Treasury rose 2.81% to 1.391%.