The Dow was flat, with Travelers down 1.8%. Hurricane Florence is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane through Thursday, the National Hurricane Centre warned of the Category 4 storm bearing down on the US east coast.
Apple shares dropped 1.2%, weighing on the three major indexes. But the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rebounded from losses last week.
“People are trying to test the waters after the selling last week,” said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist, senior portfolio manager at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was ready to levy additional taxes on practically all Chinese imports, threatening duties on US$267 billion (RM1.1 trillion) of goods over and above planned tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese products. China said it will respond if Washington takes any new steps on trade.
Among the gainers, Nike rose 2.4% after a report said the footwear maker’s Labor Day sales rose, easing concerns about the hit to demand after the Colin Kaepernick advertisement.
At 3.21pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.89 points, or 0.08%, to 25,895.65, the S&P 500 gained 8.43 points, or 0.29%, to 2,880.11 and the Nasdaq Composite added 25.69 points, or 0.33%, to 7,928.23.
Republicans in the US House of Representatives plan to unveil tax cuts this week, intended to augment Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul that added US$1.5 trillion to the federal deficit through permanent tax cuts for US companies.
Tesla rose 6.5% after brokerages Baird and Bernstein said the electric carmaker was on track to be profitable and cash-flow positive in the second half of the year.
Alibaba dropped 4% after the company said Jack Ma will step down as chairman in one year, passing on the reins to trusted lieutenant Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.71-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.14-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 44 new 52-week highs and 5 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 105 new highs and 62 new lows.