Stocks opened higher Monday but lost steam into the close. With little in the way of economic data, market participants turned to a busy earnings calendar and, for the most part, liked what they saw.
Verizon Communications (VZ), for one, jumped 4.0% after the wireless provider reported higher-than-expected earnings and revenue for the second quarter. The company also raised the lower end of its full-year earnings forecast.
And on Verizon's earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Tony Skiadas said the telecom is lifting its free cash flow guidance to reflect, in part, "an estimated benefit of $1.5 billion to $2 billion from their recently enacted [One Big, Beautiful Bill] tax legislation."
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Verizon's post-earnings gain made it the best Dow Jones stock today. All in all, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average swung lower into the close, shedding 0.04% to end at 44,323.
Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 (+0.1% at 6,305) and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (+0.4% at 20,974) each notched a new record closing high on Monday.
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO joins Team Trump
Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) surged 12.5% after the steelmaker reported a bottom-line beat on in-line sales in Q2 due in part to higher steel prices.
In early June, the Trump administration raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50% from 25%, with exceptions for the United Kingdom.
These tariffs "have played a significant role in supporting the domestic steel industry," said Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves on the company's earnings call.
Goncalves also took time to give his two cents on interest rates, joining President Donald Trump's calls for substantial rate cuts – and a new Fed chair.
The CEO said that even with the production of automobiles increasing in the U.S., the steel-reliant industry is still lagging. However, Goncalves believes it "will take off again" once the central bank starts cutting interest rates, making it more affordable for folks to buy cars.
And "despite no signs of tariffs reigniting inflation, the Federal Reserve continues to keep interest rates unnecessarily high," he said.
Goncalves added that "once [Fed] Chairman Jerome Powell is gone," interest rates will come down and "the automotive sector will take off again."
Block becomes the newest S&P 500 stock
In non-earnings news, Block (XYZ) gained 7.2% after S&P Global tapped the payments processor to be the newest S&P 500 stock.
Block will replace energy stock Hess (HES), which was acquired by oil major Chevron (CVX), on the S&P 500 ahead of the opening bell this Wednesday, July 23.
Being added to the broad-market index is a big deal for a stock because "many trillions of passive dollars are invested in products that track the S&P 500," says Kiplinger contributor Dan Burrows.
Indeed, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), the largest ETF in the world, has nearly $683 billion in assets under management.
CFRA Research analyst Caydee Blankenship thinks Block's inclusion "underscores the widespread adoption of digital payments and highlights how the fintech industry has successfully transformed traditional banking models."
She also believes that fintechs "will benefit from friendly regulation from the Trump administration, creating growth opportunities across the entire digital payments ecosystem." This includes the Genius Act, which creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
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