Dow gains 250+ points, or 0.8%, to end 5-session losing streak

Stocks ended mixed on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Dow rising to end five-session losing streaks while the Nasdaq ended narrowly in the red.

The Dow added more than 250 points, or 0.6%, as of market close. Tech heavyweight Apple (AAPL) shook off losses from Friday, which came after a California judge issued a permanent injunction against the iPhone-maker’s App Store policies amid an antitrust lawsuit with Epic Games. Investors also awaited a highly anticipated Apple event on Tuesday, which is expected to serve as the forum for the unveiling of a new iPhone and other hardware.

Equity investors also digested heightened regulatory scrutiny in China after the Financial Times reported that Beijing was aiming to break up financial technology company Alipay and separate its lucrative lending business. Shares of Chinese technology giants including Alibaba (BABA) — which owns a stake in Ant Group — and Tencent (TCEHY) dropped before paring some losses.

Traders this week are set to closely eye new data on U.S. inflation and consumer spending. The former will be monitored to signal whether upward price pressures during the recovery have extended further, and whether the Federal Reserve may need to step in sooner rather than later to stave off a lasting jump in inflation. Consensus economists expect Tuesday’s consumer price index (CPI) to rise by 5.3% in August over last year, pulling back from July’s more than decade-high annual rise of 5.4%. 

“Global supply problems could put some further upward pressure on inflation in the near term, but the increase in inflation experienced in the immediate wake of the COVID crisis is close to peaking and we expect headline inflation to fall back in every major advanced economy in 2022,” Capital Economics economist Jack Allen-Reynolds wrote in a note Monday morning. 

“However, a combination of large amounts of fiscal and monetary support, and a longer-lasting drop in the labor force, means that core inflation in the U.S. will remain well above target in 2022,” he added.

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The new data on August retail sales out from the Commerce Department later this week will also offer a look at how consumer spending has held up amid concerns over the Delta variant and rising prices. Overall retail sales are expected to drop by 0.8% in August in Thursday’s report, extending July’s 1.1% decline. 

“This is such an unusual economy right now: Highly policy-driven [between] fiscal policy, monetary policy, social policy,” Robert Dye, Comerica Bank Chief Economist, told Yahoo Finance. “And at the same time, we’re trying to reflate this economy. We’re hobbled and throttled back by the global supply chain constraints— so a very, very unusual set of circumstances right now.” 

“It looks like we’re going to get yet another shot of long-term fiscal coming from the spending program that’s going to be voted on here in a couple of weeks. But in the meantime, we’ve got to get through COVID,” he added. “We’ve got to get the consumer…