Wall Street mixed as oil prices surge, investors await earnings, economic data

NEW YORK: US stock indexes were a mixed bag on Monday as oil prices touched their highest in almost two weeks and technology stocks fell as investors waited for third-quarter earnings season and a raft of key economic releases due later this week.

US crude futures jumped more than 2.0 per cent and Brent futures were above US$106 a barrel after deadly strikes on Riyadh's international airport over the weekend.

The attacks overshadowed the prospect of increased supplies after US President Donald Trump hailed fresh Russian diesel exports and talked about a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire on energy targets.

In coming days, investors will focus on corporate earnings, with major US banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase reporting early on Tuesday.

S&P 500 earnings were expected to surge 30.6 per cent in the third quarter, according to LSEG IBES data.

Also due this week are September readings for US consumer and producer inflation data as well as retail sales data. While the US Treasury market was closed on Monday for Columbus Day, stock investors have been wary of bond yields' recent advance to 24-year highs as elevated energy prices have stoked inflation concerns.

"Looking out further in the week, we have some big economic reports," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. He said investors were cautious due to a lack of direction from bonds.

"We're also waiting on earnings and that's significant. The four large banks reporting on Tuesday can have a big impact," he said.

At 02:16 pm ET (1816 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 175.51 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 51,830.46, the S&P 500 lost 10.51 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 7,801.03 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 126.08 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 27,240.09.

With oil prices rising, energy was the biggest gainer among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors, up 1.4 per cent. S&P 500 communication services notched the next biggest advance, up 1.3 per cent, with a boost from Meta, which added more than 4.0 per cent.

Technology and consumer discretionary were the only two sectors in the red. Technology was the biggest decliner, down roughly 1.0 per cent with weakness most pronounced among chip stocks. The Philadelphia semiconductor index was down 2.6 per cent after hitting a three-week low.

Consumer discretionary was down 0.6 per cent. One of its top losers was Chipotle Mexican Grill, down 5.0 per cent after Starbucks said it was not buying the burrito chain.

Microsoft was up 0.9 per cent. Earlier its market capitalization rose above US$4 trillion for the first time in a year following its announcement of plans for a major deployment of its own AI chips.

Salesforce shares rose 1.3 per cent after BofA Global Research upgraded the stock to "buy" from "underperform." EBay gained more than 4 per cent after Morgan Stanley added the stock to its top-pick list.

Meanwhile, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said on Monday the US central bank should move "relatively quickly" to a restrictive monetary policy stance to fight inflation, which she feels has become more broad-based and is starting to influence firms' price-setting plans.

Markets are pricing in just a 19 per cent chance the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this month, according to CME's FedWatch tool.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 122 new highs and 214 new lows.

On the Nasdaq, 1,866 stocks rose and 2,828 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.52-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new highs and 277 new lows.