Stock Market Today: Stocks mixed ahead of Juneteenth week split

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U.S. equity futures were mixed in early Monday trading, while Treasury yields and the dollar held steady, as investors looked to a split week on Wall Street and improving market sentiment heading into the final stretch of the second quarter.

Stocks ended in similar mixed fashion on Friday, as well, with modest declines for the S&P 500 and the Dow and another record high close for the Nasdaq, powered in part by outsized gains for big tech names such as Nvidia NVDA and Apple  (AAPL)  as well as the biggest bond market rally of the year.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields, which slipped briefly below 4.2% Friday, the lowest since late March, have been pushed sharply lower by a combination of muted inflation readings and solid demand in last week's auction cycle.

Bets on a September Federal Reserve rate cut are starting to revive, as well, with the CME Group's FedWatch placing the odds at 66.7%

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, in fact, told CBS's 'Face The Nation' that while he would like to see more evidence that inflation is returning to the Fed's 2% target, he wouldn't rule out the odds of at least one cut this year.

The bulls are firmly in control on Wall Street as stocks continue to test fresh record highs heading into the final weeks of the second quarter. Shutterstock

"We're in a very good position right now to take our time, get more inflation data, get more data on the economy, on the labor market, before we have to make any decisions," he said. "We're in a strong position, but if you just said there's going to be one cut, which is what the median indicated, that would likely be toward the end of the year."

On Wall Street, stocks are set for a muted start to the split week, with markets closed for the Juneteenth holiday on Wednesday and only a handful of top tier data releases expected over the four trading days.

Retail sales figures for the month of May are expected prior to the start of trading on Tuesday, with weekly jobless claims, mortgage rates and PMI data set for Thursday.

Focus is soon expected to shift to the start of the second quarter earnings season in around three weeks' time, with analyst looking for S&P 500 profits to rise 10.7% from last year to a collective $495.7 billion.

Heading into the start of the Monday trading session, futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, which is up 3.37% for the quarter and 13.87% for the year, are priced for a modest 5 point opening bell decline.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, are priced for a 105 point decline while premarket gains for Nvidia, Apple and Tesla  (TSLA)  will help the Nasdaq to a 27 point advance.

In Europe, the regional Stoxx 600 benchmark slumped to a fresh six-week low, and was last marked 0.31% lower on the session, as the echoes from last week's elections continue to reverberate in the world's biggest economic bloc.

More Wall Street Analysts:

Overnight in Asia, a mixed set of May data from China underscored that country's struggle to maintain a post-Covid momentum and pulled benchmark stocks lower, leaving the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index down 0.24% into the close of trading.

Japan's Nikkei 225, meanwhile, finished 0.83% lower following a muted session in Tokyo.