Stocks fell Monday as investors grew concerned over growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East over the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 250 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite lost 1.2% and 1.8%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.20% or -61.59 points to 5,061.82
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.65% or -248.13 points to 37,735.11
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -1.79% or -290.08 points to 15,885.02
In Economic News:
U.S. retail sales rose 0.7% in March, the Commerce Department reported Monday, signalling that consumers continue to remain confident despite persistently high inflationary pressures. March's reading was above estimates for a 0.3% rise on the month, but below February's upwardly revised increase of 0.9%. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 1.1% on the month, well above estimates for a 0.5% advance.
"Alongside the recent resurgence in employment growth, the continued resilience of consumption is another reason to suspect the [Federal Reserve] will wait longer before starting to cut interest rates, which now we think won't happen until September," said Andrew Hunter, deputy chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, in a Monday note, quoted by CNBC.
On the Earnings Front:
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) reported strong first-quarter profit and revenue Monday morning, driven by inticks in its trading and investment banking revenue; investment banking fees jumped 32% to $2.08 billion.
"I've said before that the historically depressed levels of activity wouldn't last forever," CEO David Solomon said during the company's earnings call with analysts. "CEOs need to make strategic decisions for their firms, companies of all sizes need to raise capital, and financial sponsors need to transact to generate returns for their investors."
In Single-Stock News:
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares fell nearly 6% on Monday on reports that the electric vehicle maker would lay off more than 10% of its global workforce as the company looks across its business for areas where costs can be reduced and productivity can increase, CEO Elon Musk said in a company memo.
"As part of this effort, we have down a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally," the memo said, first reported by Electreck.
For Tuesday:
Market participants will react to March housing market data alongside remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday. Companies including UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UHG0, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) are also set to issue earnings reports on Tuesday.