US stocks open slightly lower, pulling back from record high

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were moving slightly lower in early trading Monday after the market hit record highs last week. Investors are continuing to focus on the economic recovery as well as concerns about inflation and rising bond yields.

The S&P 500 index fell 0.1% as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%.

Wall Street will be watching company earnings reports this week, particularly several from big banks. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo report on Wednesday, while Bank of America and Citigroup report on Thursday.

Investors expect big profits for the major banks, mostly due to rising interest rates and the ability for these banks to move loans that went bad in the early weeks of the pandemic back onto the “good” side of their balance sheets.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other loans, held steady at 1.67%. It ended Friday at 1.66% and had been as high as 1.75% last Monday.

Investors are showing cautious optimism about the economic recovery, especially in the U.S., where vaccine distribution as been ramping up and President Joe Biden has advanced the deadline for states to make doses available to all adults to April 19.

Nuance Communications soared 20% after Microsoft said it would buy the speech technology company for about $16 billion.

Alibaba rose 7% after the Chinese conglomerate said it would restructure to placate Chinese government regulatory concerns. The Chinese government had growing antitrust concerns about Alibaba, which is the equivalent of Amazon in China and has many arms and businesses, including payments and media.