Review & Preview: The S&P 500 Pulls Back

Losing Momentum. With the S&P 500 hovering near record levels, the stock markets rally hit a wall on Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 dipped 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3%.

The S&P, which closed at a record high on Friday, repeatedly struggled to stay above breakeven. The lack of follow through signals investors aren’t in any hurry to push the market beyond its recent peaks before Wednesday’s release of the consumer price index for July.

Fewer than half of the stocks in the S&P 500 rose on Monday, while high-flying chips and optical networking stocks struggled especially.

A spike in oil prices and bond yields also weighed on the markets. The S&P and Nasdaq rallied on Friday after the July jobs report sent bond yields lower, but trading volume that day was actually well below daily averages for this year.

Sevens Report Research’s Tyler Richey argued in a Monday note that though the upswing last week was broad, it was “another hollow rally.” He wrote the move was driven by retail traders, rather than professionals.

“The lack of volume underscored the absence of institutional investors,”Richey wrote. “‘Smart money’ read the report, a negative payroll print, frozen hiring, and negative real wages against 3.5% inflation, and rotated into Treasuries and gold while writing calls against equity gains.”

That could explain the lack of conviction, especially on an otherwise quiet afternoon on Wall Street.

-	Last	Chg%
↓ Dow Jones Industrial Average	53,975.98	-0.11%
↓ S&P 500 Index	7,753.11	-0.06%
↓ NASDAQ Composite Index	26,605.36	-0.32%

8/10/2026, 8:01:02 PM ET

The Hot Stock: Datadog +11.5%
The Biggest Loser: Coherent -14.2%

Best Sector: Energy +4.6%
Worst Sector: Real Estate -1.2%

Bigger in Texas?

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, but the financial industry is still a work in progress.

My colleague Avi Salzman chronicled the efforts to transform Dallas into a financial hub in the latest Barron’s. Avi writes:

One place to see Texas’ growth spurt is at the base of a half-built tower rising at the center of downtown Dallas. When the 30-story building is completed next year, it will house Bank of America’s regional headquarters and the recently opened Texas Stock Exchange, which plans to install a rolling stock ticker on the side of the building. “There’s no street called Y’all Street,” said Linda McMahon, the head of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, a civic booster. “But this is kind of what it is.”

Dallas must first overcome its reputation. Michael Lewis’s book Liar’s Poker helped popularize “Equities in Dallas” as a kind of shorthand for career exile, Avi writes.

That’s certainly what Aasem Khalil, the current head of Goldman Sachs Group’s Dallas office, thought of the city at first. Khalil, who was raised on Long Island, N.Y., was a rising Goldman executive at the bank’s New York headquarters in 2016 when he was called into the office of David Solomon, then head of investment banking, to learn about his next posting. He figured it would be some highflying locale like London. Solomon had other ideas. “When he said, ‘I want you to move to Dallas,’ I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Did I upset you? Did I do something wrong?’

Khalil has since come around.

The financial industry has added 100,000 employees in Dallas, bringing the tally to 400,00. Avi points out that JPMorgan Chase has more employees in Texas than in New York.

The financial industry push is part of a broader effort by some business leaders and politicians to champion the Lone Star State due to its lower taxes and streak of business-friendly regulation.

The state is experimenting with a kind of hypercapitalism, one whose impacts are likely to be felt around the country. Its innovations are attracting imitators, who see its success as a blueprint for how to spur economic growth. But the model has also drawn a backlash. Deregulation, critics say, has stacked the deck in favor of corporations, and led to a “race to the bottom” that will impact everyone from shareholders to employees. Texas’ growth is also hitting physical limits. In parts of the state, water supplies are running out. The data-center boom threatens to sap them even more.

Read Avi’s full cover story on the new wild west here.

The Calendar

Cardinal Health, Cava Group, CoreWeave, Lumentum, On Holding, Super Micro Computer, and Venture Global report quarterly results tomorrow.

The National Federation of Independent Business releases its Small Business Optimism Index for July. Expectations are for a 97.8 reading, slightly higher than the June figure, and just shy of the 52-year average of 98.

The National Association of Realtors reports existing-home sales for July. Consensus estimate is for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.05 million homes sold, slightly fewer than in June. The median price of an existing home hit a record high of $440,600 in June.

—Dan Lam

What We’re Reading Today

• Berkshire Hathaway Stock Nears Record. Wall Street Liked Its Earnings Report.

• SpaceX Stock Keeps Rising After Lockup Rally Ahead of the Next Share Unlock

• Intel Drops on $15 Billion Stock Offering. Why It’s Raising Funds Now.

• Nvidia Strikes Deals With Wall Street Firms to Fund Its Own Customers

Barron’s Live returns on Monday. Barron’s Live features timely and actionable insights for investors. We give you behind-the-scenes conversations with the newsroom, connecting you with our editors and reporters covering the markets, the economy, and more.