Stocks slip as investors wait on Nvidia earnings and July inflation data

U.S. equities were mixed and mostly lower on Monday as investors positioned ahead of a week containing three separate events capable of resetting expectations for both corporate earnings and monetary policy.

The S&P 500 was down roughly 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite fell about 0.5% to 0.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average held slightly positive. The split reflects where the pressure is concentrated: losses were heaviest in semiconductors and adjacent artificial-intelligence names, and lighter across the more industrial and defensive parts of the market.

Long-term Treasury yields eased but remain elevated by the standards of the past several years, keeping pressure on the valuations of companies whose earnings are weighted toward future growth. Oil prices were weak, a move that tends to relieve headline inflation while also signaling softer expectations for global demand.

Nvidia reports quarterly results on Wednesday. The company has become the single largest swing factor in index-level performance, and the debate among investors is less about whether it will grow than whether AI and semiconductor valuations have moved ahead of the fundamentals that support them. A result that meets expectations without exceeding them has, in recent quarters, been enough to move the broader market.

July personal consumption expenditures data, the inflation measure the Federal Reserve treats as its primary reference, is also due Wednesday. With inflation running at 3.4%, above the Fed’s 2% target, the reading feeds directly into the case each side of the Committee is making about the path of rates.

The week closes with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s address at the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. Together the three events give the market more information in four days than it has received in the seven weeks since the last policy meeting.