Stocks trade mixed at the open, investors await Big Tech earnings

Yahoo Finance Live’s Brad Smith breaks down how stocks are moving following the opening bell on Monday.

Video transcript

- And we're looking at markets to start off this very busy week for earnings, of course. And it looks like we've got a little bit of a down open, but not much of one, as people are positioning maybe more in individual stocks than they are in the market writ large. Yes, we're going to get GDP later this week. But the focus really does, Brad, still seem to be on these specific earnings, and particularly some of the big, big companies that are reporting this week.

- Yeah, kicking off a big earnings week. And happy Arbor Day to all who celebrate according to the gospel according to the New York Stock Exchange. Let's check in on the major averages out of the gate here. On the day, you've got the Dow Jones Industrial average. Let's [INAUDIBLE] a pretty chart for you here. And we'll put it over the past five days. How about that? Just to give you some context about how we've been trending going into this week. Over the past five days, net lower by about 0.4% out of the gate. It's up by about 0.1%, 0.2% here on the day.

The NASDAQ Composite-- you're seeing that in the red to start off this week's trading activity. As we mentioned, a lot of big mega-cap tech companies that are going to be reporting earnings over the course of this week and continuing on into next week as well. And we're going to break some of those down for you even after those earnings calls, so stick with Yahoo Finance throughout the week. The NASDAQ Composite, though, down by 0.2% to start off the week as investors really trying to gauge exactly where some of those earnings results may come out and net out of that.

The S&P 500-- you're seeing that flat, just barely to the upside here at the open, over the past five days, down by about 0.4%. Let's take a look at the S&P 500, 11 sectors. Out of the gate this morning, we're off to the races. And as of right now, it looks like technology is pulling up the caboose. As we mentioned, that was one of the down areas to kick off today's trading activity. It's down by about 0.4% for XLK. Also, you've got communication services. That is down by about 0.1%. Those are really the only two laggards, though, out of the gate this morning.

You've got XLB up 0.4%. Materials leading the charge here. And then also, you've got a host of other. Of course, industrials and real estate, they are really rounding out some of the larger gainers. Overall, in aggregate, it seems like that top line up by about-- if you were to average it-- about a quarter of a percent, all in.

And then taking a look at some of those-- as we had mentioned, those aforementioned mega-cap tech companies out of the gate this morning ahead of a big week of earnings. Apple not reporting this week, but you're also going to get-- you are going to get Microsoft, Google, Alphabet, whatever you're calling them. Amazon coming out this week as well. Amazon is up by about 0.8% to start off today. So big earnings week.

- Important correction.

- Yes.

- Arbor Day is Friday.

- Wow. They are way ahead of it. They're planting a tree ahead of time.

- Yes. So you have your tree ready to plant on Friday, I guess.