Wall Street's main indexes opened flat Monday as major chip companies slipped on the eve of a key tariff deadline after a trade policy shift that involves sharing a portion of revenue from China sales with the Trump administration.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.8 points, or 0.02%, at the open to 44,184.36. The S&P 500 fell 0.2 points, or flat at the open to 6389.67, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 9.6 points, or 0.04%, to 21,459.654 at the opening bell.
Semiconductor giant Nvidia dropped 1% in premarket trading and Advanced Micro Devices lost 2%.
A U.S. official told Reuters that the companies had agreed to give the United States government 15% of revenue from the sales of their advanced computer chips to China, days after the Commerce Department began issuing licenses for the sale of Nvidia's H20 chips.
Sale of the semiconductors was an integral issue in the U.S. agreement with China signed earlier this year and could strain the relationship between the two economies just before Tuesday's deadline for the deal's expiration.
"The Trump administration reckons higher prices and snarled-up supply chains are an acceptable price to pay to encourage more U.S. manufacturing," said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.
"The unusual arrangement is another example of a mega tech company acquiescing to the U.S. administration's demands, to gain an upper hand as trade relations are redrawn."
Markets also await clarity on the sector tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump has announced.
Traders took breather after last week's rally helped the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq log their strongest weekly performance in more than a month.
Investors expect the recent shake-up at the U.S. Federal Reserve and signs of labor market weakness could nudge the central bank into adopting a dovish monetary policy stance later this year, fueling much of the optimism.
Tuesday's consumer inflation report will either cast more doubt or offer clarity for investors, who are currently anticipating the Fed will lower borrowing costs by about 60 basis points by December, according to data compiled by LSEG.
A better-than-feared earnings season was also a relief and BofA's monthly fund manager survey showed that owning megacap stocks was once again the most popular trade.
Apple was a standout last week following its biggest weekly showing in five years, after the iPhone maker unveiled a series of U.S. investment pledges. The company's shares were down 0.7% on Monday.
Gene therapy developers fell, with Sarepta Therapeutics dropping 7.6% and Capricor Therapeutics declined 9% as Vinay Prasad, a fierce critic of U.S. COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates, was expected to return to the Food and Drug Administration.
Intel was up 1.6% and focus turned to a report that said CEO Lip-Bu Tan was expected to visit the White House after Trump called for his removal last week.
In geopolitical news, Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet on Friday to try and negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, which could also affect the outlook for crude prices.