Investing.com - The S&P 500 closed lower on Monday as financials and energy slumped, offsetting gains in technology, while rising U.S.-China trade tensions also weighed on sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.5%. The S&P 500 fell 0.44%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.26%.
Falling financials, mostly banks, kept a lid on the broader averages, weighed down by a slump in shares of Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) fell more than 2%, even as the bank revealed plans to grow its consumer finance business, Marcus, in a bid to boost revenue.
Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Polaris Industries (NYSE:PII) got the busiest week of the corporate earnings underway. Both delivered earnings that beat economists' forecast, extending a trend of upbeat earnings, but Halliburton shares sank on concerns of North American revenue.
Data from Factset showed 82% of the S&P 500 companies that have posted earnings have topped expectations.
The U.S.-China trade war, meanwhile, returned to focus, denting risk sentiment, as Chinese government leaders said they were not afraid of a trade war with the United States. This comes after a report from Axios, citing unnamed sources, suggesting that President Donald Trump wants Beijing to "suffer more."
Energy, meanwhile, also pressured the broader market, despite oil prices clawing back losses to end the day just above the flatline.
Losses in the broader market, however, were limited by a strong outing for tech underpinned by a rise in semiconductor stocks shrugging off a cautious note from Morgan Stanley.
"Sentiment in the group has become very negative as investor fears about a semi downturn grow," Morgan Stanley said in a sector report.
But Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) rose 6%, while Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) also ended the day higher.
In corporate news, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is reportedly looking at acquiring a cybersecurity firm as it looks beef up the security on its social media platform, which recently suffered a cyberattack in which millions of user data were compromised. Its share rose 0.47%.
Shares of cybersecurity names including FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE), Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP) and Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW) closed up for the day.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Jacobs Engineering (NYSE:JEC), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Praxair (NYSE:PX) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR), Scana (NYSE:SCG) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.