US equities finished mixed on Mon during the regular trading session, but a lot of action has occurred after the close. After the bell, Walmart (WMT US, -0.14%) cut its earnings forecast, sending the shares of retailers, including Amazon (AMZN US, -1.05%) sharply lower in after-hours trading.
Walmart shares have plunged nearly 9%, after announcing it needed to lower prices to clear out inventories. According to CNBC, Walmart said higher prices are spurring consumers to pull back on general merchandise spending, particularly in apparel. Amazon, Target (TGT US, -0.16%) and Costco (COST US, -0.11%) fell 4%, 5% and 3% respectively in after-hours trade.
During Mon’s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 90.75 pts or 0.28% to close at 31,990.04. The broader S&P 500 index rose 0.13%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.43%. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.60%. The energy and healthcare sectors led gainers.
Mega cap tech stocks fell on Mon, including Apple (AAPL US, -0.74%), Microsoft (MSFT US, -0.59%), Alphabet (GOOGL US, -0.36%), NVidia (NVDA US, - 1.70%), and Meta Platforms (META US, -1.55%).
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note notched up 4.55 basis points (bps) to 2.7959%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasuries rose 4.61 bps to 3.0161%.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $1.95 at US$105.15/bbl and $2.00 at US$96.70/bbl respectively.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.23% to 106.483.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Aug) contracts settled down $8.30, or 0.5%, at US$1,719.10/oz. September silver, the most actively traded silver futures, fell 28.9 cents, or 1.6%, to end at US$18.328/oz.
European equity markets finished mixed on Mon. The UK FTSE gained 0.41%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.33%, while the German DAX retreated 0.33%.
Monkeypox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic (BVNRY US, +10.24%) said it is preparing to run production 24 hours a day to meet demand.