U.S. Stocks Little Changed After Recovering From Early Weakness

After an early move to the downside, stocks have fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Monday. The major averages have climbed well off their early lows and briefly all reached positive territory before giving back ground.

Currently, the Dow is off its high of the session but still up 68.87 points or 0.2 percent at 34,351.97. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is down 19.90 points or 0.1 percent at 13,778.20 and the S&P 500 is down 0.94 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 4,414.30.

The early weakness on Wall Street came as some traders looked to cash in on last Friday’s rally, which lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq to a nearly two-month closing high.

The Dow and the S&P 500 also surged to their best closing levels in well over a month, more than offsetting the pullback seen on Thursday.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to news credit rating agency Moody’s has lowered its outlook for the U.S.’ credit rating to negative from stable.

Moody’s reaffirmed the U.S. credit rating at Aaa but said it “expects that the U.S.’ fiscal deficits will remain very large, significantly weakening debt affordability.”

The selling pressure was partly offset by a report from the New York Federal Reserve showing a modest decrease in consumer inflation expectations.

The New York Fed said inflation expectations declined at the one-year and five-year ahead horizons in October, falling to 3.6 percent from 3.7 percent and to 2.7 percent from 2.8 percent, respectively.

Overall trading activity remains somewhat subdued, however, as traders look ahead to the release of key inflation data in the coming days.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates, with traders recently expressing optimism the Federal Reserve is done raising rates.

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