US stocks close mixed as investors monitor trade talks

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Monday, as investors looked ahead to a key round of China-U.S. trade negotiations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 1.11 points to 42,761.76. The S&P 500 added 5.52 points, or 0.09 percent, to 6,005.88. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 61.28 points, or 0.31 percent, to 19,591.24.

Six of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with utilities and financials leading the laggards by losing 0.66 percent and 0.55 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, consumer discretionary and materials led the gainers by going up 1.08 percent and 0.62 percent, respectively.

The first meeting of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism opened in London on Monday. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attended the meeting with U.S. representatives.

In an interview with American outlet CNBC, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council at the White House, on Monday said that the U.S. expectation was that "immediately after the handshake, any export controls from the U.S. will be eased, and the rare earths will be released in volume, and then we can go back to negotiating smaller matters."

Meanwhile, investors are also keeping a wary eye on escalating tensions in Los Angeles after U.S. President Donald Trump sent in the National Guard to deal with anti-deportation protests.

Shares of major technology companies, which have been central to the market's momentum, were mostly higher. Amazon and Alphabet both advanced nearly 1.5 percent, while Tesla rose 4.55 percent, continuing its volatile stretch following last week's public clash between its CEO Elon Musk and Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia posted modest gains. In contrast, Apple shares slipped 1.2 percent as the company's Worldwide Developers Conference opened with a keynote from Apple's CEO Tim Cook. Broadcom and Meta also fell.

Semiconductor stocks posted strong gains to start the week. The iShares Semiconductor ETF jumped 2.36 percent, fueled by a 4.77 percent gain in Advanced Micro Devices, a 4.41 percent rise in ON Semiconductor, and a 4.13 percent surge in Arm Holdings.

Elsewhere, shares of Robinhood Markets and Applovin declined by 1.98 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. Both companies had recently hit milestones that raised speculation about their potential addition to the S&P 500, but the index's rebalancing did not include either stock, disappointing some investors.

Wall Street strategists are growing more confident about the outlook for U.S. equities, with analysts at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs now signaling a more optimistic tone. "We have high conviction that the sharp drawdown in April was the end of a much longer correction that began a year ago with the peak rate of change on earnings revisions breadth," Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson wrote in a note. A pick-up in analyst upgrades "keeps us positive on U.S. equities on a 12-month basis."