Stocks - Market Flat Ahead of G20 Meeting

Investing.com - Stocks basically stood still on Monday after a weekend of worry about global economic concerns and relief, perhaps, the United States didn't attack Iran over the downing of a spy drone last week.

But it's possible the next few days will yield more of the same as investors wait to see how a meeting between President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping goes. The two leaders are supposed to hold "an extensive meeting" this weekend at the G20 economic summit in Tokyo.

Trump also announced new sanctions on Iran, designed to get the Islamic Republic to renegotiate its nuclear agreement from a few years ago. So far, Iran has refused to negotiate.

In the meantime, the S&P 500 was off 0.2% on Monday. The Dow Jones industrials rose 0.03% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.24%. Futures trading suggests the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 index will move only a little going forward. The Dow could push up perhaps 60 points.

Something to watch: the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday and reached a new interim high on Friday. But the Dow, the Nasdaq and other indexes have not followed through. The Dow ended Monday off 0.8% from its all-time high set in October. The Nasdaq Composite is off 2.1% from its all-time high reached at the end of April.

The market was supported by tech stocks, materials stocks and consumer staples stocks like Walmart (NYSE:WMT), which hit a 52-week high. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) also hit 52-week highs.

On the downside were health-insurance companies, such as Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH).

Energy shares, including Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) were lower.

Discretionary stocks also fell. One was Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA), which had been up as much as 45% for the year as of Friday. Ulta, which sells beauty products and operates salons, was off 3.1% Monday after Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced it was starting a service to sell beauty products to professionals. Amazon saw a modest gain on the day.

There was a big deal to cheer the lovers of big deals. Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR), the big casino operator, agreed to merge with Eldorado Resorts (NASDAQ:ERI) in an $8.6 billion, cash-and-stock deal. Caesars was up 14.5%; Eldorado fell 10.6%.

Interest rates continued to move lower. The United States 10-Year yield fell to 2.02%, the lowest level since November 2016. News reports have suggested the interest-rate decline has unleashed new refinancing demand among homeowners and interest in home buying. The declines reflect an investor bet that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting at the end of July. Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitoring Tool suggests a rate cut is certain at that meeting, with a 73% chance of another rate cut in September.

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Crude oil was lower for much of the day, but rebounded near the end of the session. WTI futures finished up 47 cents at $57.90 a barrel. Brent futures, the global benchmark, were off 34 cents to $64.86, but cut its loss considerably.

Gold Futures continued to surge above $1,400 an ounce, settling at $1,418.20 an ounce. There was speculation the metal could drive above $1,500.

Winners and Losers in the S&P 500

Gaming companies Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) and Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and mining giant Newmont Goldcorp (NYSE:NEM) were among the top S&P 500 performers.

Pharmaceutical-maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), railroad equipment maker Wabtec (NYSE:WAB) and biotech giant Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG) were among the S&P 500 laggards on the day.