By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A mixed Monday on Wall Street has U.S. stocks drifting around their all-time highs.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in early trading, coming off its latest record-setting week. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.6%, as of 9:33 a.m. Eastern time, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was pulling back by 116 points, or 0.3%, from its record set on Friday.
The muted movements followed relatively quiet trading in Europe, while the U.S. bond market will remain closed for the day because of a holiday.
The strongest action in global markets came from China, where the finance minister gave a highly anticipated update on Saturday about plans for the world’s second-largest economy. Lan Fo’an said the government is looking at additional ways to boost the economy, but he stopped short of unveiling a major new stimulus plan that investors were hoping for.
The lack of detail sent markets spinning. Stocks in Shanghai jumped 2.1%, but the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.7%. Crude oil prices, meanwhile, sank nearly 2% on worries about demand from China’s slowing economy.
Hopes for big stimulus in China have sent Chinese stocks sharply higher after they languished for years. But investors are skeptical about how much it can remake and restore the economy.
“While clearly welcome, the efforts may be insufficient to spur a new reflationary cycle,” according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
On Wall Street, Boeing lost 2.5% in its first trading since the aerospace giant warned that it expects to report that it burned through $1.3 billion in cash during the latest quarter and lost $9.97 per share. Boeing also said it was laying off 10% of its workforce as it tries to deal with a strike that is crippling production of the company’s best-selling airline planes.
On the winning side of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. It rose 8.2% after announcing a $2 billion loan platform agreement with investment firm Fortress Investment Group, where SoFi will refer pre-qualified borrowers.
This upcoming week will have few top-tier economic reports outside Thursday’s update on sales at U.S. retailers to help guide trading. That will likely leave more emphasis on corporate earnings reports, which will pick up the pace this week after big banks began the reporting season last week.
Bank of America, Johnson and Johnson and UnitedHealth Group will all report their latest results on Tuesday. Later in the week will come United Airlines, Netflix, American Express and Procter & Gamble.
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AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.