By Daniel Shvartsman
Investing.com -- Leading U.S. indices drifted lower in Monday trading, with the Nasdaq leading the push lower as the so-called bear market rally took a breather after a big week.
As of 2:15 pm ET, the Nasdaq Composite was down 75 points or 0.65%. The S&P 500 was down 0.2% while the commodity-exposed Dow Jones Industrial Average drifted 0.15% lower.
This comes with market participants sizing up last week's counter-trend rally, and also perhaps getting ready for the slower summer trading season. Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson stated in a note this morning that, "we continue to believe any near term rally is nothing more than a bear market bounce with lower lows ahead," citing the headwinds of Fed policy, inflation, potential recession, and downwards corporate earnings revisions.
The commodity complex, whose sell-off drove optimism last week that perhaps the Fed would find reason to slow their hawkish run, saw mixed trading today. Crude Oil and Brent were both up, 1.8% and 1.6% respectively, as of 2:20 pm ET, while US Wheat Futures closed trading 1.9% lower and US Cotton #2 Futures closed down 4%, at a 9-month low of 94.05 cents a pound. Oil is in the spotlight as the EIA continues to struggle with delivering its U.S. weekly report due to hardware failure.
Energy stocks led the way in Monday afternoon trading as they recovered from several rough sessions. Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) was up 7.2% at 2:30 pm ET, while Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) was up 7%, the pair pacing the S&P 500. Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) and Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) led on the downside, trading 4.3% lower a piece, with Etsy in specific receiving an analyst downgrade due to a "worsening near-term macro outlook."
The big earnings after the bell comes from footwear giant Nike (NYSE:NKE), which traded down 2% in late Monday trading and not far above its 52-week high, with supply chains and China's covid policies looming as threats to the current outlook.
The cryptocurrency sector also saw a pullback from its recent bear market rally, with Bitcoin down 1.5% in afternoon trading and Ethereum down 1%.