US open: Stocks mostly higher following winning week

dl wall street wall st new york city new york stock exchange nyse dow jones nasdaq street sign nyc united states usa america pb — Sharecast / Alessandro D Andrea via Pixabay

Wall Street trading got off to a mixed start on Monday as major indices came off a winning week.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.29% at 40,775.84, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.11% to 5,560.49 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.02% weaker at 17,628.34.

The Dow opened 116.08 points higher on Monday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.

This week's primary focus will be Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the central bank's symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday, with market participants hoping to gain more insight into the Fed's position on future rate cuts. Minutes from the Fed's most recent policy meeting will also be out on Wednesday.

As far as Monday was concerned, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis president Neel Kashkari said on Monday that it was now time for the central bank to begin discussing potentially cutting US benchmark interest rates at its September meeting. Kashkari told the Wall Street Journal: "The balance of risks has shifted, so the debate about potentially cutting rates in September is an appropriate one to have."

He stated the Federal Reserve had made good progress on taming inflation but noted the labour market was showing "concerning signs". Kashkari also stated that he did not see any reason to lower interest rates in increments of larger than a quarter percentage point due to layoffs remaining low and unemployment claims seemingly not suggesting a notable deterioration.

Elsewhere, the Democratic National Convention will kick off on Monday, while earnings from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Estee Lauder were both slated for release before the end of the day.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $285.24 2.42%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $90.54 1.39%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $325.32 1.21%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $11.02 0.87%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $83.90 0.80%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $169.12 0.73%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $21.00 0.62%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $217.74 0.54%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $580.70 0.52%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $194.77 0.51%