The S&P 500 fell Monday amid a drop in shares of Big Tech names reporting earnings this week. Wall Street is also awaiting any progress on trade deal negotiations.
The broad market index declined 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 127 points lower, or 0.3%.
The S&P 500 was bogged down by a pullback in shares of "Magnificent Seven" companies that are slated to report over the coming days. Amazon fell almost 2%, and Microsoft shed more than 1%. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms and Apple each slid 0.4%.
Nvidia and Tesla also helped lead the index lower, with the artificial intelligence chip darling plummeting nearly 3% and the electric vehicle maker tumbling more than 2%.
Earnings results have been somewhat strong for the prior quarter, with 73% of companies reporting beating analysts' estimates so far - slightly below the 5-year average of 77%, according to FactSet data. Still, Wall Street is lowering expectations for the second quarter and the full year as companies come out with uncertain guidance because of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered little clarity on the direction of reaching a possible trade agreement with China, but said that the onus was not on the United States. On the positive side, however, Bessent said that they were making progress on other trade proposals, suggesting a deal with India would be "one of the first" to come.
"I believe that it's up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable," Bessent said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
His comments come after President Donald Trump said last week that discussions with China were underway, refuting China's claims of no trade talks between the two countries.
"Recent days have brought indications of some easing in U.S.-China trade tensions, with both sides chipping away at the unsustainable tariff rates implemented earlier this month and the US signaling some intent to deescalate," wrote Barclays economist Jonathan Millar in a recent note. "This is mostly talk, for now, and we remain skeptical that there will be enough concrete momentum in trade discussions to sidestep a U.S. recession."
This week will mark the end of April, which has seen stocks whipsaw across a wide trading range after Trump unveiled his sweeping tariff plans and then later walked some of the stiffer duties back.
So far in April, the S&P 500 is down by more than 2%, sitting more than 10% below its 52-week high reached in late February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on track to lose almost 5%, while the Nasdaq Composite is down nearly 1%. The S&P 500 briefly entered a bear market on April 7 and has made a recovery since, but the index has failed to break through key resistance levels.
The week also will see multiple reports on the labor market as well as key data on inflation and economic growth. Topping the list will be Friday's nonfarm payrolls release, while first-quarter gross domestic product and the Fed's preferred inflation gauge will be out Wednesday.
Megacap tech names struggled in Monday's session.
Every member of the Magnificent Seven traded lower. CNBC's tracker of the index slid nearly 2% in midday trading.
Nvidia led the stocks into the red with a drop of 3.5%. Tesla was the next biggest loser, falling around 3%.
Despite Monday's declines, all seven stocks are still up from where they traded one week ago.
These are the stocks moving the most in midday trading:
Read the full list of stocks moving here.
Nvidia - the AI darling of the 2023-2024 bull market - briefly fell as much as 4.2% in early trading Monday, snapping a four-day rally from last Tuesday through Friday that drove up the Jensen Huang-led stock by 14.5%.
Nvidia's recent 3.5% decline made it the largest percentage loser in the S&P 500 Monday, trailed by Micron Technology and Tesla, both down 3%.
Last week's stock rebound is more likely a sign of a bear market than of a turnaround, meaning investors should brace for more volatility, according to Wolfe Research.
"Although indices have not officially fallen 20% below all-time highs, the past week's price action screams 'bear market to us' with lower highs and lower lows likely for stocks," Chris Senyek, chief investment strategist at the firm, wrote Monday.
"The S&P 500 is now only down only -2.5% from its Liberation Day close while the effective tariff rate is significantly higher, even despite the 90-day reciprocal pause!" he added. "With the market hypersensitive to economic releases and news flow, especially as details around trade deals are revealed, we'd expect to see further violent upside rips as investors anchor and extrapolate from the latest data point."
The S&P 500 ended higher by 4.6% last week. On Monday, it was last slightly down in midday trading.
President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office are the worst for the stock market for the start of a president's four-year term since the 1970s.
The S&P 500′s 7.9% drop from when Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20 through the April 25 close, is the second worst first 100-day performance going back to the beginning of President Richard Nixon's second term, according to CFRA Research. Nixon saw the S&P 500 tumble 9.9% in 1973, after a series of economic measures he took to combat inflation resulted in the 1973 to 1975 recession. Nixon would later resign in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal.
On average, the S&P 500 rises 2.1% in the first 100 days for any president, in data of post-election years going from