Stocks moved into the red Monday as Wall Street assessed inflation risks and possible implications a global tax agreement would have on the largest technology companies in the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points, or 0.11%, to 34,717, the S&P 500 dipped 0.18% and the Nasdaq was down 0.08% as investors weighed the impact a 15% global corporate tax agreement secured by the G-7 over the weekend would have on the tech giants.
Tech stocks were weak in afternoon trading, weighing on sentiment a bit. Shares of Zoom and Tesla each fell about 1%.
Visa shares were higher, gaining 1% following an upgrade by Piper Sandler.
Meme stocks are back in the spotlight again this week. AMC rallied 20% on Monday. Most of these speculative stocks, including GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry, ended the week in the red despite massive gains after a volatile trading week.
Over the weekend the G-7 nations reached an agreement on global tax reform, calling for the world’s largest corporations to pay at least a 15% tax on their earnings.
That’s lower than the Biden administration’s initial suggestion of a minimum 21% tax rate, which didn’t garner much enthusiasm in other countries. Major companies including Facebook and Google have responded favorably to the agreement.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was up slightly to 1.572% on Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices lost 32 cents to $69.30 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices grabbed $20.70 to $1,894.00 U.S. an ounce.