By Hannah Erin Lang
Rising shares of Nvidia and Alphabet nudged stocks to new records on Monday, while shares of consumer companies fell.
Shares of Domino's Pizza led declines in the S&P 500 index, after the company lowered its U.S. same-store sales growth estimates for the year and said sales softened during the first quarter.
What's dragging on the pizza-delivery business? Falling consumer sentiment, rising gas prices and the fact that cash-strapped customers are starting to cut back, Domino's executives said. The stock tumbled 8.8% after the results to its lowest closing level since 2023.
Stocks in the consumer-staples and consumer-discretionary sectors slumped Monday: Dollar Tree slid 5.5%. Ulta Beauty fell 3.4%, while Taco Bell parent Yum Brands dropped 3.2%.
After wavering in early trading, major U.S. stock indexes were mixed. The S&P 500 inched 0.1% higher, while the Nasdaq composite advanced 0.2%, both adding to the record highs they set Friday. Chip stocks including Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices fell, cooling off after a historic climb and weighing on broader benchmarks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower, or 63 points.
Companies that sell consumer goods like food, clothes or cleaning products are starting to feel the pinch as lower-earning consumers tighten their budgets in the face of higher energy costs and a stagnant job market. "The consumer is still a little bit muted," Procter & Gamble's chief financial officer said last week.
Meanwhile, food and beverage company PepsiCo said that cutting prices helped lure customers back to buying snacks like Doritos or Lay's potato chips.
The U.S. war with Iran has snarled energy supply chains and is already hiking prices at the gas pump. "The rise in energy prices affects people significantly," said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments. "It has an outsized effect on those earning lower wages."
But as consumer sentiment has been sinking to new lows, the mood in equity markets has improved significantly. Stocks have raced back to all-time highs, rapidly recovering from steep declines spurred by the onset of the war in late February. Even without a permanent resolution to the conflict, investors have sent the S&P 500 9.9% higher in April, on pace for its best month since November 2020.
Nvidia and the AI trade have been big drivers of the recent rally. The artificial-intelligence-chip giant rose 4% Monday, with its stock price and market cap both hitting new records. Nvidia's market value closed the day at $5.2 trillion, more than $1 trillion ahead of the next largest company, Alphabet, whose shares rose 1.7%.
More broadly, profits and sales at the largest U.S. companies are surging. Based on first-quarter results reported so far, companies in the S&P 500 are on track to report their highest net profit margin in more than 15 years, according to FactSet analysts.
That's with some of the biggest companies still set to share results this week. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Meta will report earnings Wednesday -- a crucial update for investors who have refocused on the AI trade.
Oil prices rose after President Trump said he wasn't sending U.S. envoys to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran. Brent crude rose 2.8% to settle at $108.23 a barrel. More than 70% of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings this month have mentioned Iran or oil, according to Bank of America analysts.
But expect those concerns to take a back seat for now, Rosen said, as investors stay focused on corporate bottom lines.
"What drives equity markets is profits -- period," Rosen said. "Everything else is secondary."
Write to Hannah Erin Lang at hannaherin.lang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2026 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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