US stock indexes are drifting following their sharp losses from last week.

The S&P 500 was up 0.1 per cent in afternoon trading after flipping between small gains and losses through the morning. The relatively modest moves follow its 1.7 per cent tumble on Friday, which followed several reports on the US economy that came in weaker than expected.

The Dow Jones was up 253 points, or 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 per cent lower. The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures at 5am AEDT pointing to a slide of 31 points, or 0.4 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.1 per cent on Monday.

Berkshire Hathaway climbed 3.9 per cent for one of the market’s bigger gains after Warren Buffett’s company reported a jumped in operating profits for the latest quarter. But even there, the good news came with a bit of caution.

The owner of Geico, BNSF railroad and other businesses said over the weekend that it’s sitting on a mountain of $US334.2 billion ($525.2 billion) in cash. Such a large amount could indicate Buffett, who’s famous for buying stocks when prices are low, may not see much worth purchasing in a market that critics say looks too expensive.

Starbucks rose 1.4 per cent after saying it would cut 1,100 corporate jobs and leave several hundred more positions unfilled as new CEO Brian Niccol tries to make it a leaner operation.

They helped offset a 1.6 per cent drop for Domino’s Pizza, which reported results for the latest quarter that just missed analysts’ expectations. Its international operations were a standout, but a closely tracked sales trend weakened for corporate-owned US stores.

Big US companies have broadly been reporting better profits for the last three months of 2024 than analysts expected, which is one of the main reasons the S&P 500 set a record before sliding at the end of last week. The pace of reports will slow this week, but several potentially market-moving updates are still on deck.

Chief among them is Nvidia, the company that’s become one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks because of what had been nearly insatiable demand for its chips. Wednesday will be the company’s first profit report since a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, upended the artificial-intelligence industry by saying it developed a large language model that can compete with big US rivals without having to use the top-flight, most expensive chips.

That called into question all the spending Wall Street had assumed would go into not only Nvidia’s chips but also into the whole ecosystem that’s built up around the AI boom, including electricity to power large data centres.

Nvidia’s stock bounced between gains and losses through Monday morning, helping to pull the S&P 500 and other indexes up and down in its wake. It was virtually unchanged in midday trading.

Apple shares rose by 1 per cent as it sought relief from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from China, saying that it will hire 20,000 new workers and produce AI servers in the US.

The company said Monday that it plans to spend $US500 billion domestically over the next four years, which will include work on a new server manufacturing facility in Houston, a supplier academy in Michigan and additional spending with its existing suppliers in the country. The disclosure comes days after Trump and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook met in the Oval Office.

Other big profit reports due this week include Home Depot’s on Tuesday and Salesforce’s on Wednesday.

This upcoming week will also feature updates on consumer confidence and inflation, topics that are at the top of Wall Street’s agenda following last week’s slump.

Recent reports have shown that consumer sentiment is souring as expectations for inflation worsen, in part because of tariffs and other policies pushed by President Donald Trump.

Stubbornly high inflation could prevent the Federal Reserve from delivering more relief for the economy and financial markets through lower interest rates.

The Fed has been holding its main interest rate steady after sharply cutting it through the end of last year. At their last policy meeting in January, Fed officials suggested they may stay on hold for a while given worries about how Trump’s proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, along with other factors, could push upward on inflation.

While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also encourage spending that puts upward pressure on inflation.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were edging lower ahead of the upcoming reports. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.40 per cent from 4.43 per cent late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, German stocks ticked higher, and the DAX advanced 0.6 per cent after political conservatives won an election dominated by concerns about Europe’s largest economy.

Indexes were lower across much of the rest of Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 fell 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.6 per cent and Japan’s market was closed for a holiday.

AP

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