Stocks are wavering at the start of a busy week that has employment figures on tap, along with earnings from Nvidia and retail heavy-hitters Target and Walmart.
Shortly after the market opened, the Dow was flat, the S&P 500 was up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2%.
Investors kicked off the day with comments from Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Philip Jefferson who, at a Kansas City Fed event, said he expects slightly higher unemployment by the end of the year compared to this summer. Comments from Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Governor Christopher Waller follow this afternoon.
Nvidia shares its report card for the prior quarter this Wednesday, the same day Target reports its earnings.
Walmart will report earnings on Thursday.
The U.S. jobs report for September is also due Thursday. The report was delayed by more than a month because of the government shutdown.
“While investors will undoubtedly welcome the official fundamentals, the dated nature of the employment figures will make the information more challenging to trade,” wrote Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets. “September’s data during the second half of November doesn’t carry the same relevance as it would have over six weeks ago.”