Stan ChoeUpdated August 25, 2026 — 6:22am,first published 5:17amUS stocks drifted to a mixed finish as the countdown ticks toward potentially market-moving events coming later in the week. The areas of the bond market that the US Treasury Department is trying to calm down, meanwhile, eased a bit.The S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent and pulled a bit further from its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 140 points, or 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8 per cent.Most stocks rose, but tech giant Nvidia weighed on the market.BloombergThe Australian sharemarket is set to edge higher, with futures at 6.05am AEST pointing to a rise of 9 points, or 0.1 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.5 per cent on Monday. The Australian dollar was trading at US71.47¢. Reporting season continues, with Coles and Woodside Energy among companies set to release results today.Tech stocks led the way downward following big swings through the summer on worries that the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology sent prices too high and that the huge demand for AI chips won’t be sustainable if they don’t produce enough profits.Chip giant Nvidia has been a tremendous winner of the AI boom and become Wall Street’s largest and most influential stock because of it. It will deliver its latest quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, which could dictate the next big move for AI-related stocks.Nvidia sank 2.9 per cent and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500, where the majority of stocks rose. Drops of 5.8 per cent for Micron Technology and 2.6 per cent for Broadcom also helped drag the index lower.All told, the S&P 500 fell 21.51 points to 7,652.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 140.15 to 53,417.16, and the Nasdaq composite sank 200.26 to 25,980.19.The other big factor moving stocks recently has been the bond market, where longer-term Treasury yields climbed through the summer on worries about high inflation, huge government debts and other factors. High yields make it more expensive for everyone to borrow, not just the government, and have already pushed up mortgage rates and hurt the housing industry.The US Treasury Department announced a surprise move last week to increase the size of planned buybacks of Treasurys, which could help contain the rise in yields for 10- and 30-year Treasurys. But analysts warned the move may have only a limited effect because of how small the size of the buybacks are and how they do not fix the fundamental problems of too-high debt for the US government and expensive oil prices because of the war with Iran.On Monday, the yield of the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.70 per cent from 4.74 per cent late Friday and is back below where it was late Tuesday, before the US Treasury Department made its surprise announcement.Helping to bring yields down on Monday was a drop in oil prices. Brent crude fell 2.3 per cent to $US90.54 per barrel.Last month it zigzagged between $US72 and $US102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. The United States on Monday announced new sanctions aimed at Iran, which helped drag the value of Iran’s currency to a record low against the US dollar.Despite Monday’s easing of Treasury yields, analysts warn the US government’s attempts to influence the bond market could ultimately mean higher pressure on inflation. Inflation already is worse than nearly everyone would like and has been for years.That raises the pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate, which affects very short-term overnight loans. When the Fed raises that rate, it could help keep a lid on inflation by trying to slow the overall economy and undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.The Fed’s new chairman, Kevin Warsh, is set to deliver a speech Friday at an economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The mountain setting has been the backdrop for major Fed policy announcements in the past, but investors are unsure of what they may get from Warsh this time around.Warsh has insisted that he wants to give financial markets fewer clues about what the Fed will do with interest rates, hoping that markets react more to incoming data about the economy and inflation than to what the Fed is signalling.But with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announcing his move last week, Warsh now holds the ball, according to economists at Bank of America. Expectations are high among investors for Warsh to talk about inflation and how the Fed could potentially react, and a failure to deliver could lead to bond yields rising further, they said.Elsewhere, a public financial disclosure has revealed US President Donald Trump invested as much as $US50,000 ($70,000) in Elon Musk’s SpaceX in June, giving him a financial stake in a major government contractor run by his former adviser.He bought between $US15,001 and $US50,000 in shares on June 23, according to a financial disclosure signed by him on August 12 and made public on August 22. The purchase was part of more than a thousand stock trades the president made in June.Trump’s investment in SpaceX adds a new financial link between the president and Musk’s rocket company at a time when the administration is making decisions that could affect the firm’s fortunes.SpaceX is a US military contractor, and ​often seeks approvals from federal agencies. Trump last week directed his team to help drastically increase ‌the number of US commercial space launches. SpaceX is a dominant player in that sector.In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped around much of the world. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.1 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.9 per cent for two of the biggest moves.Seoul has been home to some of the world’s sharpest swings this summer because it is dominated by two tech titans benefiting from the AI boom, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.APThe Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners