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Stocks rose to notch a fresh record close on Monday, but the gains were muted as Wall Street remained cautious to start off the corporate earnings season.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average improved 27.13 points from their all-time high to 27,359.16,
The S&P 500 regained 0.53 points from Friday’s all-time high to 3,014.30
The NASDAQ Composite gained 14.04 points to 8,258.18
Citigroup kicked off the earnings season by reporting second-quarter numbers which topped analyst expectations. Gains from the initial public offering of Tradeweb, an electronic bond trading platform, drove the bank’s results past Wall Street estimates.
Citigroup shares traded higher in the pre-market after the results were released, but quickly fell 0.1% lower shortly after the open.
Other big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are expected to report quarterly earnings later this week.
The outlook for this earnings season is bleak. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings to have fallen by 3% in the second quarter.
Symantec shares plunged more than 10% after media reports the company ceased deal negotiations with Broadcom.
Monday’s moves come after the major indexes had a record-setting week as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated during congressional testimony that an interest-rate cut could be on the horizon from the central bank. The Dow closed above 27,000 for the first time on Thursday and Friday’s gain brought its increase on the week to 1.5%.
Meanwhile, China’s economic growth slowed to 6.2% in the second-quarter from a year earlier, its weakest pace in at least 27 years, as the trade war with the U.S. took its toll.
Still, China’s gross domestic product growth was in line with expectations, and data for industrial production, retail sales, and fixed-asset investment came in above analyst expectations.
President Donald Trump commented on the Chinese economic data, tweeting that the slowdown in economic growth is "why China wants to make a deal."
Prices for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury eked up, lowering yields to 2.09% from Friday’s 2.11%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices were down 92 cents at $59.29 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices added $4.50 to $1,416.70 U.S. an ounce.
