Wall St Muted, With Focus on Retail, Jackson Hole

Wall Street's main indexes were subdued Monday, in a quiet start to a week packed with corporate earnings reports from major retailers and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

Investors also remained wary ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Kyiv's conflict with Moscow. Trump has told Ukraine to give up hopes of getting back annexed Crimea or joining NATO, but will push for a peace deal with Russia.

Wall Street's main indexes rallied over the past two weeks, with the blue-chip Dow hitting an intra-day record high on Friday, aided by interest rate cut expectations and a better-than-expected earnings season despite an uncertain trade environment.

Investors will closely monitor reports from Walmart, Home Depot and Target among others, which are expected this week, to determine how trade uncertainty and inflation expectations have affected U.S. consumers.

Data on Friday showed that while retail sales were increasing broadly as anticipated, consumer sentiment overall had taken a hit from mounting inflation fears.</p> <p>"A lot of orders were pulled forward from a lot of retailers and companies that are producing products. So from an earnings standpoint, most likely they're going to be in line and if there is a beat, it might be slight," said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors.

At 09:55 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.15 points to 44,943.97, the S&P 500 lost 3.83 points, or 0.06%, to 6,445.97 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 28.59 points, or 0.13%, to 21,594.39.

Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors edged up, with healthcare stocks leading with a 0.5% rise as UnitedHealth gained 2.3%, building on its nearly 12% jump in the previous session.

Investors continue to price in a 25-basis-point cut from the Federal Reserve next month, although they have lowered their expectations for another rate cut this year, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Recent data have also suggested that while U.S. tariffs have not filtered into headline consumer prices yet, weakness in the jobs market could nudge the central bank to take a more dovish stance.

Markets hope that the Fed's Jackson Hole, Wyoming conference between August 21 and 23, where Chair Jerome Powell is expected to speak, could offer more clarity on the economic outlook and the central bank's policy framework.

On the trade front, the Trump administration widened the reach of its 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports by adding hundreds of derivative products to the list of goods subject to the levies.

Dayforce surged the most in the S&P 500 index, up 25.4% after a report said PE firm Thoma Bravo is in talks to acquire the HR management software firm.

Solar stocks such as SunRun jumped 7.2% and First Solar gained 6.2% after the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled new federal tax subsidy rules for solar and wind projects.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.41-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.4-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 54 new highs and 35 new lows.