Investing.com - The S&P 500 closed higher Monday as tech clawed back some losses from last week, but concerns over escalating trade tensions continued to weigh on sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.23%. The S&P 500 rose 0.19%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained about 0.27%.
Bargain-seeking investors scooped up beaten-up tech stocks, which suffered heavy losses last week, owing to concerns over increased regulations on social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.
Both Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares ended the day above the flatline, with latter posing a nearly-1% rise.
Tech was also boosted by a rebound in semiconductors stocks, as analysts said the steep selloff seen last week was "overdone."
"We continue to believe this move is overdone, and we continue to expect semis to outperform through year-end," analysts at Evercore ISI said in a note to clients.
Still, upbeat investor sentiment on equities was fraught with ongoing concerns over simmering U.S.-China trade tensions following President Donald Trump's threat last week to impose another round of tariffs on China.
Trump on Friday signaled a willingness to slap additional tariffs on Beijing "very soon," warning that another $267 billion was ready to go on short notice.
Boeing (NYSE:BA), often cited as a trade bellwether given its large international exposure, ended the day nursing losses.
Energy, meanwhile, ended the day roughly unchanged as oil prices were pressured by investor concerns that that a tropical storm could dent crude demand.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for October delivery fell 0.29% to settle at $67.54 a barrel.
On the corporate news front, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock surged more than 8% on positive analyst comments from Bernstein. Bernstein said Tesla would rebound from its recent slump. The automaker's shares had plunged 30% through Friday since CEO Elon Musk's infamous tweet on Aug. 7, in which he said funding had been secured to take the company private.
Others, however, attributed the move higher in Tesla to Musk's decision to tweak the company's management structure on Friday following the departure of key executives, including chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, who resigned last week.
In other corporate news, Freds (NASDAQ:FRED) shares surged after the company said it would sell prescription files and related pharmacy inventory from 185 Fred's stores in 10 southeastern states to Walgreens.
Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) will pay $165 million, and an amount equivalent in value to Fred's pharmacy assets.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), United Rentals (NYSE:URI) and Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Brown Forman (NYSE:BFb), Torchmark (NYSE:TMK) and Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.