Stock Market Today: Stocks Choppy With Inflation Data on Deck
The major indexes struggled for direction Monday amid more volatility in regional bank stocks and ahead of this week's key inflation updates.


Despite Friday's impressive rally, stocks were choppy to start the new week.
Regional bank stocks remained in focus following last week's massive selloff, while investors also looked ahead to this week's inflation data, which includes Wednesday's release of the April consumer price index.
Last week, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) plummeted 38% amid news that JPMorgan Chase (JPM, +0.2%) will buy First Republic after it was taken into receivership by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
It looked as if regional banks were starting this week on firmer ground thanks to PacWest Bancorp's (PACW, +3.7%) late-Friday announcement that it is cutting its dividend as "a prudent step to build capital."
But after being up by nearly 3% at its session high, KRE ended Monday down 2.0%. The proximate cause for the selloff was the Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS), which revealed that banks reported tighter lending standards the first quarter. This, according to the Fed, was due to a "more uncertain economic outlook, reduced tolerance for risk, deterioration in collateral values, and concerns about banks' funding costs and liquidity positions." What's more, banks said they expected to further restrict lending standards for the remainder of this year.
How did the stock market finish today
Seven of the 11 sectors finished lower, led by a 0.7% decline in real estate stocks. The communication services sector paced the four advancers with a 1.0% gain.
As for the major benchmarks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% to 33,618, while the S&P 500 (+0.05% to 4,138) and the Nasdaq Composite (0.2% to 12,256) eked out modest gains.
Buffett talks OXY at Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) held its annual meeting over the weekend, and the event sparked a number of notable headlines. For one, Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said the company is not going to take control of oil exploration and production company Occidental Petroleum (OXY). Buffett first added OXY to the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio in Q1 2022, and has been buying shares hand over fist – leading to rumors of a potential takeover. "There's speculation about us buying control, we're not going to buy control. … We wouldn't know what to do with it," Buffett said on Saturday.
While OXY fell, BRK.B gained ground, adding to its recent outperformance of the broader market. Longer term, Berkshire Hathaway has been one of the best 30 stocks of the past 30 years.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is the senior investing editor at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at a local investment research firm. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.
-
How to Navigate Your Medicare Advantage Plan in a Disaster
If you're a Medicare Advantage member in an area that has been impacted by a disaster, you might be worried about access to care and medicine. Here's what you need to know.
-
Older Investors: Boost Your Savings and Retire Earlier
This one measure can help older investors retire up to two years earlier and potentially double their retirement savings.
-
What Tariffs Mean for Your Sector Exposure
New, higher and changing tariffs will ripple through the economy and into share prices for many quarters to come.
-
Dow Rises 585 Points on Rate Cut Hope: Stock Market Today
Stocks moved more than 1% again Monday, this time to the upside following the Jobs Friday sell-off.
-
Dow Dives 542 Points on Soft Jobs Data: Stock Market Today
The last day of a busy week ends with the first greater-than-1% move in either direction in more than a month.
-
How to Invest for a Fall Interest Rate Cut by the Fed
A lot can happen between now and then, but the probability the Fed cuts interest rates in September is back above 80%.
-
Stocks Rise After Trump-Powell Fed Tour: Stock Market Today
Nvidia hit a new all-time high intraday, but another renowned semiconductor name and some less iconic stocks were bigger movers Friday.
-
Are Buffett and Berkshire About to Bail on Kraft Heinz Stock?
Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway own a lot of Kraft Heinz stock, so what happens when they decide to sell KHC?
-
How the Stock Market Performed in the First 6 Months of Trump's Second Term
Six months after President Donald Trump's inauguration, take a look at how the stock market has performed.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into Berkshire Hathaway Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have Today
Berkshire Hathaway is a long-time market beater, but the easy money in BRK.B has already been made.