U.S. stocks were mixed in early Monday trading as investors looked to the holiday-shortened week and the traditional 'Santa Claus rally' to pull stocks out of their sharp December downturn.
Updated at 9:46 AM EST
Mixed open
The S&P 500 was marked 4 points, or 0.08% higher in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq gained 70 points, or 0.36%.
The Dow was marked 117 points lower while the mid-cap Russell 2000 gained 16 points, or 0.74%
Benchmark 2-year note yields were marked 1 basis point higher on the session at 4.332% while 10-year notes rose 1 basis point to 4.546%
Updated at 8:42 AM EST
Private changing room
Nordstrom (JWN) shares edged lower in early trading after the struggling department store chain agreed to a $6.25 billion buyout from Mexico-based conglomerate El Puerto de Liverpool and other Nordstrom family members.
The deal price, however, was pegged at $24.25 per share, around 28 cents below Friday's closing price, although it does include a special dividend of 25 cents per share.
Once completed, Nordstrom will de-list from all public markets and operate as a privately-owned company.
"For over a century, Nordstrom has operated with a foundational principle of helping customers feel good and look their best," said CEO Erik Nordstrom. "Today marks an exciting new chapter for the business. On behalf of my family, we look forward to working with our teams to ensure Nordstrom thrives long into the future."
Nordstrom shares were marked 1.6% lower in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $24.14 each.
Updated at 7:43 AM EST
Sleeping arrangement
Eli Lilly (LLY) shares jumped in early trading after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its weight-loss treatment for sleep apnea patients.
The FDA approval should enable a wider range of sales for Zepbound, Lilly's blockbuster GLP-1 drug, as estimates suggest as many as a billion people worldwide suffer from sleep-apnea symptoms.
Eli Lilly shares were last marked 1.6% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $780.05 each.
Stock Market Today
Stocks ended higher on Friday following a softer-than-expected reading of the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE Price Index and some solid gains for megacap tech names, although all three major benchmarks recorded weekly declines as Treasury yields surged and risk appetite faded.
Investors are now recalibrating their interest rate projections following the Fed's December policy meeting last week, which included an increase in the central bank's inflation forecast and a halving of its guide for 2025 rate cuts
That's lifted benchmark Treasury bond yields to multimonth highs, with rate-sensitive 2-year notes trading at 4.321% and 10-year paper rising 42 basis points over the past two weeks to 4.541%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, is trading near a two-year high at 107.983.
Wall Street's 'Santa Claus Rally' has typically boosted stocks by around 1.3% over the final five trading days of the year, as well as the first two of the next. BRYAN R. SMITH/Getty Images
The moves have added pressure on stocks this month, with the S&P 500 down 1.68% and the equal-weighted S&P 500 ETF, which smooths out the impact of megacap tech stocks, down 7%.
Santa Claus on Wall Street
The typical end-of-year 'Santa Claus Rally', however, could provide a final boost to a 2024 performance for U.S. stocks. The final five trading days of the year, as well as the first two of the next, have delivered an average gain of 1.3% over the past 55 years.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 suggest an 8-point opening-bell gain while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is little changed from Friday's close.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, which fell 1.78% last week to trim its December gain to 1.84%, is called 65 points higher, with Nvidia (NVDA) , Tesla (TSLA) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) active in premarket trading.
In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 benchmark rose 0.39% in early Frankfurt trading but remains on pace for one of its worst quarterly performances in more than two years. Britain's FTSE 100, meanwhile, was marked 0.14% higher in London.
Overnight in Asia, Honda and Nissan formalized their merger talks, and pegged a 2026 completion date for the historic tieup, helping lift the Nikkei 225 1.19% into the close of trading.
The regionwide MSCI ex-Japan benchmark, meanwhile, was last marked 1.31% higher into the close of trading.
