Wall Street down as investors enter risk-off mode
US stocks closed lower on Monday, as investors were wary of betting on riskier assets before seeing the outcome of Russia's aborted weekend mutiny. The rebellion by Russian mercenaries raised questions about President Vladimir Putin's future. While Putin on Monday thanked mercenary fighters and commanders who had stood down to avoid bloodshed, the US State Department said the situation in Russia remained dynamic. Growth stocks were among the biggest weights on the main indexes, with Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla all falling sharply. Last week, US stocks sputtered after a recent rally, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq snapping its eight-week winning streak after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled there could be more interest rate hikes ahead. "It doesn't feel like the all clear has sounded yet," said Carol Schleif, chief investment officer at BMO family office in Minneapolis, referring to Russia. "Nobody knows what the ultimate power structure in Russia's going to look like." "Traders are having a tough time today figuring out if they want to be offensive or defensive so they've got a foot in both camps. They don't know which way the market's going to swing," she said. Adding to uncertainty was the start of the second quarter's final week on Monday, weeks ahead of the financial reporting season. This prompted profit-taking in growth stocks that had advanced sharply so far this year, Schleif said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04 percent, to 33,715; the S&P 500 lost 0.45 percent, at 4,329; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.16 percent, to 13,336. Among single stocks, Pfizer fell 3.7 percent after the drugmaker said it was discontinuing the development of an experimental obesity and diabetes drug due to elevated liver enzymes in patients in clinical studies. Alphabet fell 3.3 percent after UBS downgraded the stock to "neutral," while Tesla sank 6 percent after Goldman Sachs cut the electric car maker's rating to "neutral." (Reuters)