NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks opened lower Monday as markets entered the final trading stretch of a year in which gains were often driven by artificial intelligence stocks.
Despite periods of worry in recent weeks over AI equity valuations and the robustness of project financing, the Nasdaq has led the major indices in 2025 following gains by Nvidia, Google parent Alphabet and others.
About 20 minutes into trading, the S&P 500 stood at 6.904.93, down 0.4 percent. The broad-based index has risen more than 14 percent in 2025.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.3 percent to 48,585.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.6 percent to 23,461.39.
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“There is some tech profit taking and no information to really drive markets,” said Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital, adding that a benign trading environment could position equities to rise in the final sessions of 2025.
Among individual companies, Lululemon Athletica climbed 1.4 percent following reports that founder Chip Wilson had launched a proxy fight to name three directors to the board of the apparel company.
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