Early gains fade on Wall Street as trading remains choppy

By DAMIAN J. TROISE
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks gave up much of an early gain on Wall Street Monday as trading remained choppy.

Markets have had a bumpy ride in recent weeks as investors worry about rising interest rates and persistently high inflation.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 1:22 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed at 32,913 and the Nasdaq edged up 0.2%.

Banks gained ground along with rising bond yields, which allow them to charge more lucrative interest rates on mortgages and other loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.03% from 2.95% late Friday. Bank of America rose 0.7%.

Retailers and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending also made solid gains. Dollar General rose 1.3%. Technology stocks turned mixed after lifting the market earlier in trading.

Several big companies were moving on a mix of deal and other news.

Twitter fell 2.2% after Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to call of his deal to buy the company, saying Twitter was refusing to hand over data. Spirit Airlines rose 6.5% after JetBlue raised its offer to buy the rival carrier, and Amazon rose 2.1% after executing a 20-for-1 stock split.

The early gains for major indexes to open the week come as the broader market remains in a slump. The benchmark S&P 500 index is coming off of its eighth losing week in the last nine.

“Investor emotion continues to be the primary driver of movement,” Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, wrote in a note to investors.

Rising inflation has been stinging businesses and consumers. Concerns about inflation have also prompted the Federal Reserve to aggressively raise interest rates in an attempt to slow economic growth enough to temper inflation. But, Wall Street is worried raising interest rates too quickly or by too much could cause a recession.

Investors will get more data on inflation’s impact on Friday when the Labor Department releases its May report on consumer prices.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still adding to the pressure on rising inflation with high energy prices. Lockdowns in China because of COVID-19 have also added to worries about worsening supply chain problems, but some of those measures are being lifted. Diners are returning to restaurants in most of Beijing for the first time in more than a month as authorities further eased pandemic-related restrictions.

Solar energy companies gained ground as President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to increase U.S. manufacturing of solar panels while declaring a two-year tariff exemption on panels from Southeast Asia. Sunrun rose 7.2% and SunPower rose 4%.