Nasdaq 100 Eases From Records As Brent Tops $108: Stock Market Today

U.S. tech stocks eased slightly from record highs at midday Monday as a fresh leg higher in crude prices and a packed earnings-and-policy week kept buyers cautious.

The Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.4% to 27,206, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones each shed about 0.1% and the Russell 2000 hugged the flatline.

It is shaping up to be a highly eventful week, with five Magnificent Seven names — Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), a combined market cap of nearly $15 trillion — reporting earnings between Wednesday and Thursday, with a Federal Open Market Committee meeting sandwiched in between.

The dominant narrative on Wall Street was energy commodities ripping higher.

Brent crude rose 2.9% to $108.40 a barrel, on pace for a sixth straight session of gains and on track to close at its highest level in three weeks. West Texas Intermediate added 1.9% to $96.22, while natural gas climbed 2.4% to $2.58 per MMBtu.

Goldman Sachs upgraded its 2026 fourth-quarter Brent forecast on Monday to $90 a barrel from $80, and its WTI forecast to $83 from $75, citing a slower recovery in Persian Gulf production and a delayed normalization of exports, now expected by the end of June instead of mid-May.

Treasury yields drifted higher as the geopolitical premium kept inflation hedges in play. The 10-year yield rose 3 basis points to 4.33%, holding last week’s gains as markets braced for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve decision — likely to be Jerome Powell‘s last as chair before Kevin Warsh‘s anticipated confirmation in May.

Monday’s Performance In Major US Indices

According to the Benzinga Pro platform:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:VOO) slipped 0.1%.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA) shed 0.1%.
• The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) fell 0.4%.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE:IWM) was flat.

The session’s clear winners were the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF), which gained 0.8% , and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLC), up 0.8%, the latter lifted Verizon Communications Inc.’s (NYSE:VZ) strong earnings.

Shares of the telecom giant rallied 3.9% after the company beat on adjusted EPS at $1.28 versus $1.23 consensus and raised its 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to year-over-year growth of 5.0%–6.0%, sending it to the top gainer of the Dow Index.

On the downside, the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) fell 0.7%, dragged by Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NASDAQ:DPZ) wich tumbled 9.6% after missing both EPS and revenue expectations, with U.S. same-store sales up just 0.9% and management cutting full-year U.S. and international same-store sales guidance to positive low-single digits, citing consumer, macro and competitive headwinds.

On the downside, the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLY) fell 0.7%, dragged by Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NASDAQ:DPZ), which tumbled 9.6% to $332.60 after missing both EPS and revenue expectations, with U.S. same-store sales up just 0.9% and management cutting full-year U.S. and international same-store sales guidance to positive low-single digits, citing consumer, macro and competitive headwinds.

The day’s biggest single-stock story belonged to Organon & Co. (NYSE:OGN), which surged 17.0% to $13.18 after India’s Sun Pharmaceutical confirmed an $11.75 billion all-cash buyout at $14.00 per share, capping a roughly 88% rally in the women’s health spinout this month.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) jumped 7.5% to $10.49 on speculation that the Trump administration could re-tighten Section 232 steel tariffs after softening signals earlier in April; Cleveland-Cliffs reported a wider Q1 net loss of $229 million on April 20, so the bounce comes from depressed levels rather than an earnings catalyst.

AI-storage leader Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) climbed 6.9% to a fresh all-time high north of $1,058 after Wells Fargo’s Aaron Rakers raised his price target to $975 from $675 and Bernstein lifted its target to $1,250, both flagging an under-appreciated NAND upcycle driven by AI data-center demand.

Sandisk is also slated to report quarterly earnings later this week, and according to the Benzinga Pro platform, option markets are pricing the highest implied post-earnings move among mega-cap companies reporting this week.

Read-across lifted Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) 5.9% to $525.98 on memory-cycle sympathy buying with no firm-specific news on the tape.

Monday’s Russell 1000 Top Gainers

Monday’s Russell 1000 Top Losers

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