US stocks retreated on Monday as Wall Street looked ahead to a parade of Federal Reserve speakers and a key inflation print for clues to the chances of further US interest-rate cuts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped roughly 0.4%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) nudged down 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was about 0.1% lower, on the heels of a strong week for stocks as investors welcomed the Fed’s return to easing.

Gold (GC=F) rose to a fresh all-time high on Monday, topping $3,750 amid bets the Fed will lower rates twice more before the end of 2025. But bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other crypto tokens sank as traders liquidated over $1.5 billion in bullish wagers.

Markets are waiting for Friday's fresh reading on the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, to test those wagers. A weak print is likely to lift the odds of another quarter-point cut in October. Wall Street expects PCE in September to show price pressures are persisting but remain tame enough to keep the Fed on track.

Meanwhile, investors will listen out for any other hints from a packed schedule of Fed speakers in coming days, including Chair Jerome Powell and President Trump-backed Stephen Miran. The newly installed Fed governor has promised to give details on his policy views at his appearance on Monday in New York, while Powell is slated to speak on Tuesday.

Markets were watching for any fallout from Trump's latest immigration crackdown. On Friday, his administration said US companies will face a $100,000 fee for H1-B work visas, prompting the likes of Microsoft (MSFT) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to send urgent emails warning employees. Shares of megacap techs were mixed in early trading.

In earnings reports due later, eyes will be on Micron Technology (MU) for updates on AI-driven demand and on Costco (COST) results for a window into consumer spending.

US stocks pulled back at the open on Monday after rallying to fresh all-time highs at the end of last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) sank roughly 0.4%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) dipped 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was about 0.1% lower, as megacap tech stocks were mixed amid Trump's new $100,000 fees for H1-B work visas and Oracle's (ORCL) CEO shakeup.

Investors are looking ahead to a slew of Federal Reserve speakers this week, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Stephen Miran. Wall Street is also watching for the personal consumption expenditures price index reading on Friday, a key inflation print, for clues to the chances of further US interest-rate cuts.

Oracle shares dipped more than 1% before the market open after the software giant said it appointed two new co-CEOs to replace Safra Catz.

The two new chief executives are Clay Magouyrk, who was the president of the company's AI cloud business, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and Mike Sicilia, who was the president of Oracle Industries. The two were named presidents of those Oracle segments in June, which Business Insider reported at the time to be part of a broader succession plan, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Oracle's former CEO, Safra Catz, served in her role since 2014. The Israeli-American billionaire and former investment banker has been appointed executive vice chair of the company's board of directors.

\\"In her role as Vice Chair, Safra and I will be able to continue our 26-year partnership — helping to guide Oracle's direction, growth and success,\\" Oracle chair Larry Ellison said in a statement.

Oracle's stock decline reverses gains earlier in the morning after news that the tech firm will recreate and provide security for a new TikTok algorithm to allow the social media app to continue operating in the US, avoiding an impending ban. Analysts have told Yahoo Finance that Oracle's involvement in such a deal is seen as a positive for the software company because it allows it to continue its partnership with TikTok, storing the app's American user data. That deal accounted for 5% of the revenue seen by OCI in its 2025 fiscal year, MorningStar analyst Luke Yang estimated.

Metsera stock (MTSR) surged over 60% in premarket trading on Monday on news that Pfizer (PFE) would acquire the weight-loss drug developer in a $7.3 billion deal.

Pfizer stock rose 1% as the company looks to shore up its position in the obesity treatment market after its own weight-loss pill, danuglipron, faced setbacks in its clinical trials, which led the company to abandon that drug's development.

Metsera has several GLP-1 therapeutic candidates in the pipeline. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire all outstanding shares of Metsera common stock for $47.50 per share, valuing the company at around $4.9 billion. Additionally, Metsera is eligible to receive additional payments of up to $22.50 per share in cash tied to three specific clinical and regulatory milestones.

\\"The proposed acquisition of Metsera aligns with our focus on directing our investments to the most impactful opportunities and propels Pfizer into this key therapeutic area,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.

Read more here.

T-Mobile (TMUS) stock fell around 1% in premarket trading on Monday after the company announced that its CEO, Mike Sievert, would step down on Nov. 1.

Chief operating officer, Srinivasan Gopalan, will take over as chief executive, the company said. He has held senior leadership positions at Bharti Airtel, Capital One, Vodafone, and Deutsche Telekom's Germany business. Sievert, who became CEO in 2020, will shift to become vice chairman and advise on long-term strategy.

Sievert and Gopalan will discuss the leadership change on Yahoo Finance at 9:30 a.m. ET. You can watch that interview live here.

As the US and China near a deal to keep TikTok running in the US, a White House official said that Oracle (ORCL) would operate the algorithm and secure the data of US users on the Chinese short-form video app.

According to Bloomberg, a preliminary divestiture deal would allow American buyers to lease a copy of TikTok's algorithm from its parent company, ByteDance, and retrain it for US users.

Oracle would store the data from US users of the app in a secure cloud with controls aimed at keeping out foreign adversaries, including China, a White House official said. ByteDance would not have access to data on TikTok's US users nor to its algorithm in the US.

Shares of Oracle rose 0.8% in premarket trading on Monday. Year to date, the stock is up 85%.

Read more here.

Wall Street is bracing for a busy week of comments from Fed officials and updates on economic data after the first US rate cut of 2025 boosted stocks to record highs, notes Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley.

Here's what's in focus for coming days:

In the week ahead, a raft of Fedspeak will highlight the calendar, with speeches from newly installed Federal Reserve board governor Stephen Miran and Fed Chair Jay Powell on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, the biggest events for close Fed-watchers.

Elsewhere on the calendar, a few major earnings reports and a smattering of economic data will populate the schedule as investors navigate the relative lull between earnings seasons.

A key economic highlight will be Friday's update on inflation, with the Personal Consumption Expenditures index set to show that \\"core\\" PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred measure, eased to 0.2% in August while annual increases remained at 2.9%, above the central bank's target.

Investors will also keep an eye on the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index out Friday morning and also closely track mortgage rates, which are near their lowest levels in a year, according to Freddie Mac.

Read more here.

Economic data: Chicago Fed national activity index (August)

Earnings calendar: Firefly Aerospace (FLY)

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

TikTok's algorithm to be secured by Oracle in Trump-backed deal

Cryptocurrencies sink as $1.5B in bullish bets wiped out

'This isn't your grandfather's S&P 500': Wall Street on what's next

Fed's Powell and Miran set to speak: Week ahead

Trump administration to link Tylenol to autism: WaPo

BYD's stock falls after report Buffett sold entire stake

Trump's $100,000 visa targets a $280 billion India success story

Musk's robotaxi plans for San Francisco alarmed regulators

Pfizer to buy weight-loss drug developer Metsera for up to $4.9B

Stocks hit fresh record highs as the Fed delivered its expected rate cut, fueling what some on Wall Street see as a short-term \\"honeymoon rally.\\" Other strategists believe there's more room for gains.

Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reports:

Optimism around easier financial conditions and the artificial intelligence boom has powered equities higher, defying September's reputation as a weak month for stocks.

Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett said in a note to clients that if this is a bubble, it may not be ready to burst. His team studied more than a century of equity manias and found that past bubbles typically delivered average gains of 244% from trough to peak. By that measure, the \\"Magnificent Seven,\\" up 223% since their March 2023 lows, may still have room to climb.

That view was reinforced by Jeff Krumpelman, chief investment strategist at Mariner Wealth Advisors, who argued that AI-driven productivity gains and strong earnings prospects justify higher multiples. ...

Krumpelman noted that the S&P 500's (^GSPC) valuation, roughly 23 times forward earnings, is high by historical standards, but he argued that comparisons to past cycles don't tell the full story.

\\"This isn't your grandfather's S&P 500,\\" he said. \\"Return on equity and profit margins were far lower in those times when we weren't so [oriented] in those communication services and technology growth names.\\"

Read more here.

Here's a look at some of the top stocks trending in premarket trading:

Snap (SNAP) stock rose 7% in premarket trading on Monday. Last week analysts from JMP Securities maintained its Market Perform rating on the company, citing strong advertiser sentiment.

Intel (INTC) stock fell 1% before the bell on Monday. Semiconductor company Nvidia (NVDA) announced a joint chip partnership and $5 billion stake in Intel (INTC) last week.

Coinbase (COIN) shares fell 3% in premarket trading following a pullback in cryptocurrencies, which saw more than $1.5 billion in bullish wagers liquidated on Monday, triggering a sharp selloff.

Shares in the \\"Magnificent 7\\" megacaps were little changed in Monday's premarket as investors appear to shrug off President Trump's big hike in fees for visas used heavily in the US tech industry.

The Trump administration said Friday that companies have to pay $100,000 per year for H-1B working visas, part of its crackdown in immigration.

That plan prompted some Big Techs and Wall Street banks to warn their employees not to leave the US or to return to the country quickly. But Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA), traded steady in premarket, in a range of less than 1% higher or lower.

Read more here.

BYD's (BYDDY, 1211.HK) shares sank in Hong Kong in the wake of a report that Warren Buffett's investment firm had dumped its stake in the Chinese EV maker.

Bloomberg reports:

The stock fell 3.4%, ranking among the worst performers on a gauge of Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has exited its entire holding in BYD, according to a CNBC report on Sunday that also cited a spokesperson for the US firm confirming the development.

A filing by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the subsidiary that held BYD’s shares, listed the value of the investment as zero as of March 31, CNBC reported. Buffett’s firm held the stock for more than 15 years, having first bought 225 million shares in September 2008. The stock surged more than 4,500% since the day before the first purchase to March 31 this year. ...

BYD’s shares have tumbled about 30% from the all-time high reached four months ago due to growing concerns over its ability to fend off competition amid a destructive price war in China.

Read more here.

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.KS) saw its stock value pop by over 5% following the announcement that Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) has given the go-ahead for the use of advanced memory chips, a first for the Korean tech behemoth.

Bloomberg reports:

The stock climbed at its peak to the highest since August 2024. Monday’s gain comes after local media including the Korea Economic Daily reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the AI accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek, and finally allows Samsung to compete with SK Hynix Inc. with higher-end products.

Samsung has made headway with its latest generations of chips and should gain final certification on HBM3E from Nvidia soon, people familiar with the matter said.

The South Korean company has redoubled efforts in 2025 to catch up with local rival SK Hynix and Micron Technology Inc. of the US in the provision for high-bandwidth memory, which is designed to work in tandem with the powerful Nvidia chips that Meta Platforms Inc. and OpenAI employ to train and operate AI services. Company representatives have declined to comment on the reports.

Samsung shares are up roughly 20% this month on expectations also that commodity memory chips — where Samsung still leads — will face supply shortages next year, thanks to demand from artificial intelligence. Global funds bought more than $2 billion worth of Samsung in September.

Read more here.

Reuters reports:

Asian stocks inched up and the dollar was steady on Monday as traders pondered the U.S. monetary policy path after the Federal Reserve's rate cut last week, while President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown on worker visas kept sentiment in check.

The focus will be on Indian and tech stocks after the Trump administration said on Friday it would ask companies to pay $100,000 per year for new H-1B worker visas, a blow to the tech sector that relies on skilled workers from India and China.

U.S. stock futures eased in early trading with the S&P futures down 0.1%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.09% higher. Tokyo's Nikkei rose 1% after dropping on Friday.

India's $283 billion information technology sector, which gets more than half of its revenue from the U.S., will likely feel the pain in the near term amid souring ties between India and the United States.

Read more here.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) held a fifth weekly advance, boosted by the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut of the year, with investors looking to a key inflation print due Friday for more clues about the US central bank’s monetary path.

Bullion was trading around $20 an ounce short of a record high set last week, after the Fed reduced rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. Prices then retreated from the all-time high after Chair Jerome Powell indicated officials would take a “meeting-by-meeting” approach to future decisions, curbing expectations for rapid easing. Lower rates benefit non-interest bearing gold.

Traders will parse incoming data this week, including activity readings in Europe and Friday’s personal consumption expenditures price index in the US. The Fed’s preferred measure of underlying inflation likely grew at a slower pace last month, which would boost the argument for rate cuts. Additionally, Powell is also due to speak on the economic outlook on Tuesday.

Read more here.