The three major indexes ended Monday’s session with muted moves.

The Dow and Nasdaq Composite finished around flat, while the S&P 500 added about 0.1%.

— Alex Harring

Deutsche Bank thinks a selloff in Iridium stock presents investors with a strong entry point.

The firm upgraded the satellite communications stock to buy from hold in a Monday note. Analyst Edison Yu attributed the roughly 21% decline the stock since reporting second-quarter earnings in July to a later-than-expected direct to device opportunity from management.

“While usage could indeed be low at the onset, we think smartphone OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] remain very committed to deploying satellite connectivity features over the next year,” Yu said. “This should benefit Iridium as it receives a per device royalty regardless of end-user utilization.”

— Brian Evans

What’s on investors minds? “Strikes and hikes,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.

Stovall told CNBC that investors will be watching the Federal Reserve meeting this week, as well as central bank activity from around the globe, including in countries such as Japan, Switzerland and Sweden.

“Globally, investors are on edge waiting to find out what their central banks are likely to do,” he said.

Within the U.S., Stovall said the United Auto Workers strike that began last week has raised questions about potential inflationary pressures. Ford was down more than 2% on Monday, while General Motors and Stellantis each slid more than 1%.

He noted that the autoworker strike builds on a broader theme of work stoppages in the country.

— Alex Harring

It’s been an ugly 2023 for utility stocks – a favorite of income investors for their solid dividends – but there could be upside as the year winds down, Morgan Stanley said.

The utilities sector is down nearly 9% this year, but it has enjoyed a nice boost in September – where it’s up close to 3%.

Morgan Stanley noted that a few catalysts can help lift shares higher into the end of the year, including key regulatory approvals for a handful of names.

“As we head into the final stretch to the end of the year, we think investors will be particularly careful in picking their spots, watching for downside tail risk and focusing on clear and meaningful catalysts to drive performance,” analyst David Arcaro said in a recent note.

Read about three of the firm’s utilities picks here.

— Darla Mercado

Shares of Simply Good Foods rose more than 3% after Morgan Stanley said shifting consumer preferences to healthier choices could give the company an edge over peers.

The firm upgraded the stock of the food and beverage company to an overweight rating from equal-weight in a Monday note.

“SMPL is well positioned given its portfolio of high protein, low carb and low sugar snacks, spanning multiple categories,” analyst Pamela Kaufman wrote. “SMPL’s solid topline growth outlook is an increasingly scarce asset in a group that is facing slowing topline growth and should support its valuation premium.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can click here to read more.

— Lisa Kailai Han

RBC analyst Michael Siperco initiated coverage of Seabridge Gold on Monday with a $25 price target, suggesting shares could rally 124.4% from Friday’s close.

The firm noted that Seabridge has begun to accelerate development of its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell gold/copper project in the ‘Golden Triangle’ region of northern British Columbia. The Canada-based company’s KSM project is the world’s largest undeveloped gold project as measured by reserves and resources, according to the company.

“We think generational gold/copper assets in good mining jurisdictions are hard to find, and harder to advance, making KSM a potentially attractive option for producers looking for long-term, consistent production potential,” Siperco wrote in a note. At full production, RBC said that KSM would be a top-five annual gold producer.

— Pia Singh

Oil service, energy and utility stocks are huge outperformers so far in September, and the gains for oil services and energy in the third quarter are even more dramatic.

Month to date, oil service stocks (as reflected in the VanEck Oil Services ETF [OIH]) are up 5.2%, S&P 500 Energy by 4.2% and even S&P 500 Utilities by 3%. The S&P 500 is down 1.1% in September.

Quarter to date shows an even wider disparity: Oil services are up 24.7%, Energy is up 13.2%, the S&P 500 is higher by less than 0.2% and utilities are down 1.7%.

Energy was the best performing S&P 500 sector in Monday’s session with a 0.7% gain.

P.S. Don’t look now, but Nvidia is almost 11% lower in September and Taiwan Semiconductor is down 12% in the third quarter.

— Scott Schnipper

Raymond James thinks Disney can outperform peers as legacy media transitions toward streaming.

The firm initiated coverage of Disney with an outperform rating in a Sunday note.

“Media companies are grappling with the transition from the profitable but declining Linear TV to the mostly unprofitable (as of now) but growing Streaming business,” analyst Ric Pretiss says. “We believe Disney’s assets position it well to navigate this transition.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

The three major indexes were little changed as the final hour of trading kicked off, marking some cooling for earlier climbs.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all traded within 0.1% of their flatlines at 3 p.m. ET. At session highs, the three all traded up more than 0.3%.

— Alex Harring

Deutsche Bank says Micron stock will grow thanks to stronger pricing power.

The firm upgraded Micron to buy from hold in a Sunday note, and added that the company could outperform Wall Street estimates heading into 2024.

“While we acknowledge that MU shares have held up much better than our expectation during the downcycle, we expect further appreciation as estimates increase and valuation multiple (based on [price-to-book]) expands,” analyst Sidney Ho said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

The Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, has been trading at a remarkable ‘first day of the week strength’ streak, according to BTIG. The firm found that the QQQ is currently on its 12th consecutive positive first day of the week. However, it noted that the ETF’s ‘strength’ today is “tepid at best.”

“Overall breadth [is] still negative and 64% of NYSE volume [is] in declining stocks,” chief market technician Jonathan Krinsky said in a Monday note.

“QQQ and SPY volumes are running ~20% below average,” Krinsky added.

— Hakyung Kim

An attractive valuation, strong balance sheet and brand growth spell a bright future ahead for Ralph Lauren, according to Guggenheim.

The firm upgraded the company’s stock to a buy rating from neutral on Monday, setting a price target of $166.

“Our updated view includes our belief that there are opportunities to deliver better than we previously expected gross margins into 2024 and 2025, aided by clean inventories, lower freight expenses, and lower cotton prices,” analyst Robert Drbul wrote.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Nike is likely to face some near-term headwinds as demand slows, especially overseas, according to Wells Fargo.

The investment bank slashed its price target for the apparel company to $120 from its previous forecast of $130, simultaneously lowering its full-year 2024 earnings to $3.60, below analyst consensus of $3.72.

“On top of worsening US retail performance (athletic footwear remains weak), our manufacturing checks likewise point to weaker forward orders,” analyst Ike Boruchow wrote in a Monday note. “While the Chinese shopper being under pressure is the main call out we hear, we also note a lack of innovation/newness was also cited.”

— Lisa Kailai Han, Michael Bloom

While the Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at this week’s meeting, this doesn’t assure that there won’t be another rate hike in the future, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

“Inflation pressures are easing, broadly speaking, but remain well above desired levels with the risk of further increases in oil prices, so the Fed cannot yet declare victory,” McBride said Monday.

He added that rates will likely stay “higher for longer” due to stronger-than-expected economic growth and inflation coming down at a slower pace.

“Even once the Fed is done raising interest rates, they’re unlikely to say as much for risk of a loosening in financial conditions that undermines their objectives,” he said. “A sudden pullback in long-term rates, for example, could give juice to the economy when the Fed is trying to take that away.” 

— Hakyung Kim

Bernstein analyst Sara Russo is telling investors to tap the breaks on the enthusiasm for Arm Holdings.

The investment firm initiated coverage of the British chipmaker with an underperform rating, warning that it was “too soon to declare them an AI winner.” The stock was down nearly 8% Monday afternoon.

Read more about the call on CNBC Pro.

— Jesse Pound

Apple led the Dow higher in Monday’s session as investors cheered Wall Street’s take on new iPhone demand.

Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs said they had positive outlooks for demand for the new iPhone. Specifically, Morgan Stanley called preorder data “better than feared.”

Shares of the big-technology stock climbed 2.5% in Monday’s session. Visa, Travelers, Honeywell and Intel were also among the top performers with all up more than 1%.

American Express and Boeing restricted gains for the blue-chip average with losses of more than 2% and 1%, respectively. As a whole, the 30-stock index was up about 0.2% around 1:45 p.m. ET.

— Alex Harring

Bank of America hiked its price target for JB Hunt Transport after company president Shelly Simpson said at a conference last week that the so-called “freight recession” appears to be ending.

“The company highlighted that bid compliance is off historic lows and it sees moderating declines in Intermodal volumes. The improving forward view on the freight cycle is concurrent with an inflection in our bi-weekly Truck-Shipper Survey as our BofA Truckload Demand Indicator held above 50 for the 3rd consecutive issue after 26 wks at or below the level,” analyst Ken Hoexter said in a note to clients Monday.

JB Hunt also announced on Thursday that it agreed to buy the brokerage operations of railroad company BNSF. Bank of America estimated that the deal could give a small boost to earnings per share for JB Hunt.

Bank of America’s price target for JB Hunt is now $216 per share, up from $207.

— Jesse Pound

Eleven S&P 500 names hit fresh lows in midday trading Monday, including several dollar stores and solar stocks.

Dollar General traded at lows not seen since March 2019, with shares last falling 2%. Dollar Tree reached lows last seen in November 2021.

Solar stocks Enphase Energy fell to lows not seen since January 2022. Meanwhile, SolarEdge Technologies traded at its worst levels going back to July 2020.

Here are some of the other fresh S&P 500 lows:

• J.M. Smucker trading at lows not seen since June 2022
• Target trading at lows not seen since July 2020
• Bristol-Myers trading at lows not seen since December 2021
• Illumina trading at lows not seen since January 2017
• Incyte trading at lows not seen since December 2018
• Pfizer trading at lows not seen since March 2021

— Sarah Min, Chris Hayes

DoorDash stock could grow thanks to exceptional market share amongst peers as food inflation cools, according to Mizuho Securities.

The firm upgraded DoorDash stock to buy from neutral in a Sunday note. Shares climbed 2.6% in Monday trading.

“We believe key drivers include continued market share gains from its category-leading position in the US, and rational competition in Europe,” analyst James Lee said. “In conjunction, moderated food inflation and resilient consumer spending provide incremental support to our view.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

The Federal Reserve is done hiking this year, even if the dot plot that’s set to release this week shows one more increase, according to Goldman Sachs.

“On November, we think that further labor market rebalancing, better news on inflation, and the likely upcoming Q4 growth pothole will convince more participants that the FOMC can forgo a final hike this year, as we think it ultimately will,” the firm’s chief economist Jan Hatzius wrote on Saturday.

“But we expect the dot plot to show a narrow 10-9 majority still penciling in one more hike, if only to preserve flexibility for now,” he added.

The dot plot shows where individual members expect to see rates trending over the next several years. The Fed concludes its two-day policy meeting Wednesday.

— Sarah Min

These are some of the stocks making notable moves midday:

• Oil stocks — Petroleum refiners Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum gained 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively, as West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices reached their highest levels since November, 2022. The oil services ETF and S&P 500 Energy Index both rose 1%.
• Arm Holdings — Shares declined 5.4% on the back of the company’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut Thursday, when it surged nearly 25%. Needham initiated coverage of the chip designer with a hold rating on Friday, saying Arm’s valuation looks “full” in a post-smartphone era.
• Moderna — The pharmaceutical company lost more than 7% Monday, making it the biggest decliner in the S&P 500. Co-founder and board chairman Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares for approximately $1.64 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Pharmaceutical peer Pfizer said in a press conference Monday that it expects a 24% vaccination rate for Covid-19 shots in the U.S. this year. Moderna’s updated Covid vaccines have been approved in both the U.S. and the U.K.  

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Carvana was upgraded to neutral from underperform by Wedbush on Monday. The Wall Street firm said the used-car dealer’s recently completed debt exchange and improving profitability could drive upside in the second half of the year.

“The company is benefitting from more favorable industry pricing conditions, loan sales that are on pace to greatly exceed originations, and favorable pricing in the ABS market, which should help drive upside in the near-term,” analyst Seth Basham wrote in a note to clients.

However, he is hesitant to recommend the stock to longer-term investors. Basham also upped his price target to $48 from $40, which suggests 8% downside from Friday’s close. Shares have rallied 1,000% so far this year.

— Michelle Fox

Covid-19 vaccination efforts are getting underway after updated shots received the nod from the Food and Drug Administration, but how many people will be rolling up their sleeves remains a huge question.

Speaking at a conference sponsored by J.P. Morgan Monday, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer David Denton said he expects a 24% vaccination rate in the U.S.

“Keep in mind the flu is probably closer to a 50% vaccination rate, so we haircut that pretty significantly for the year. We will see how that plays out as we look at the trends in the in the coming weeks in the US and globally from that perspective,” Denton said, according to a FactSet transcript.

Pfizer shares were recently down 1.1% in trading, after hitting a fresh 52-week low. Rival Covid vaccine maker Moderna fell nearly 8%, while its partner BioNTech shed nearly 4%.

Last month, Moderna raised its forecast for Covid shot sales to a range of $6 billion to $8 billion, froma prior estimate of $5 billion. The company had said it expects demand for Covid vaccines to roughly match that of the flu.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney said Tesla earnings could take a hit from slimmer margins. Shares slipped about 2.5% in Monday’s session.

“We believe that Tesla could further lower prices in 2024 to support higher volumes which we believe will mitigate the EPS benefit from cost reductions,” Delaney said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Novo Nordisk shares are down nearly 3% after a Market Wire report said a North Carolina plant tasked with making semaglutide, the active ingredient in its popular Wegovy and Ozempic drugs, was cited by the Food and Drug Administration for quality control lapses.

The company sent emailed statements to both Reuters and Investor’s Business Daily saying that the Clayton plant was “running and producing for the market.” The statement added that it doesn’t comment on interactions with the FDA. Both news organizations weren’t able to confirm the initial report.

The popular drug has experienced periodic shortages due to robust demand. It belongs to a new class of weight loss drugs that have been highly effective in helping people to shed pounds.

Last week, several analysts issued reports that predicted GLP-1 medications could become as common as statins, which are drugs taken to fight high cholesterol levels. With this in mind, some forecasts are now predicting the category’s sales could balloon to more than $150 billion by the end of the decade.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Some of the fund’s biggest holdings, including Enphase Energy and SolarEdge, hit new 52-week lows on Monday.

— Jesse Pound, Gina Francolla

PayPal stock could still feel pressure despite a fresh start with former Intuit chief executive taking the reigns next week, according to MoffetNathanson.

The firm downgraded PayPal stock to market perform on Monday. Shares fell more than 1.5% in morning trading.

“Looking forward, unfortunately, we expect PayPal’s gross profit growth to remain lackluster, in the low- to mid-single digits, and we see the potential for further downside to our estimates, particularly given the strong momentum of Apple Pay, which we worry will begin to benefit from the powerful network effects in payments,” analyst Lisa Ellis said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Clorox shares slumped 1% after the company warned that a cyberattack in August will weigh on its fiscal first-quarter results.

The company known for household items such as bleach said that the attacks resulted in product outages and delays that have impacted operations.

Clorox said it will begin bringing systems back to speed next week, but did not provide an estimates as to when it expects a full resumption in operations.

— Drew Richardson, Samantha Subin

Stocks were little changed shortly after Monday’s opening bell.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all traded near flat shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET.

— Alex Harring

Oil prices edged higher as investors weighed the prospect of a widening supply deficit in the fourth quarter.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained more than 1% early Monday and hit a high of $91.70, the highest level since Nov. 8, 2022 when WTI traded as high as $92.17. So far this quarter, WTI has gained 29.8%, putting it on pace for the first positive quarter in three quarters.

Brent crude futures hit a high of $94.78, also hitting its highest level since Nov. 16, 2022 when it traded as high as $94.79.

The VanEck Oil Services ETF (OIH) gained 0.9% in premarket trading, led by Dril Quip, Liberty Energy and Transocean which were all higher by more than 1.5%.

— Pia Singh, Gina Francolla

Here are Monday’s biggest premarket movers:

• DoorDash— Shares added 1.6% after being upgraded by Mizuho Securities to buy from neutral on Sunday. The Wall Street firm said solid market share and strong consumer spending on food should help the delivery company surpass forecasts in the second half.
• Micron Technology — The stock gained more than 2% premarket after Deutsche Bank upgraded the memory and storage solutions company to buy from hold on Sunday, and also raised its target price. The firm said Micron’s pricing power with semiconductor direct random access memory is hitting an inflection point, and could push the company to beat first-quarter expectations.
• Arm Holdings — Shares of the semiconductor company fell 3.7% in premarket trading as the newly public Arm tries to find its level in the market. Bernstein initiated coverage on Monday with an underperform rating

Read here for the full list of stocks on the move.

— Pia Singh

The U.S. could see disinflation without triggering a broad recession, according to Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.

Yardeni said the U.S. is shaping up to see a rolling recession, which is when different sectors see recessionary periods at different points. The Federal Reserve, which has its next policy meeting this week, has been trying for the past several months to bring down inflation without tipping the economy into a recessionary period.

“Generally speaking, Fed watchers like to criticize the Fed and suggest that they’re always wrong about their forecast and what they are doing,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But I think they’re actually getting it right this time. And I think we may very well have immaculate disinflation, where inflation comes down without an economy-wide recession.”

— Alex Harring

The end of September has been hard in the past for the S&P 500, according to Carson Group data.

A rocky patch is typically seen between the 20th and 30th of September for the S&P 500, Carson Group found when averaging index performance back to 1950. Of those 11 days, only two — the 27th and 28th —have been positive on average.

And this year, that stretch of days bleeds into the latter half of this week. The S&P 500 has historically lost an average of 0.2% on the 20th, 0.31% on the 21st and 0.08% on the 22nd.

— Alex Harring

Last week was tough for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost about 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. It marked the second straight week of losses for both indexes.

Meanwhile, the Dow was able to eke out a narrow gain of around 0.1%.

— Alex Harring

European markets had a negative open to start this week’s trading, following their Asia-Pacific counterparts lower as investors look ahead to a week of central bank decisions.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 0.2% lower, with sectors spread across positive and negative territory. Mining stocks led marginal gains with a 0.3% uptick, while household goods were down 0.5% at the start of trading.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Shares of beleaguered Chinese real estate developer Evergrande tumbled as much as 22.6% on Monday after police detained some staff from the group’s wealth management unit over the weekend.

Reuters reported that police from the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement that “public security organs took criminal compulsory measures against Du and other suspected criminals at Evergrande Financial Wealth Management Co.”

It is not clear who Du is, although Reuters said that he was identified by staff in 2021 as general manager and legal representative of Evergrande’s wealth management division.

Evergrande shares recovered later in the session to gain 1.61%, compared with its Friday close.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japanese investment holding company SoftBank is reportedly planning to invest “tens of billions” into artificial intelligence, according to the Financial Times.

Citing “two people familiar with [SoftBank founder Masayoshi] Son’s thinking,” the FT reported the company is considering several options, including investing in or a “broad strategic partnership” with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

SoftBank could also invest in rivals, the report added. FT also said that SoftBank made a preliminary approach to buy U.K.-based AI chipmaker Graphcore.

SoftBank told the FT it does not comment on rumors, and Graphcore denied to FT that it received an offer from SoftBank.

— Lim Hui Jie

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports slid for an 11th straight month, falling 20.1% year on year.

The fall was much larger than the 15.8% drop forecast by economists polled by Reuters, but slightly less than the 20.3% fall recorded in July.

Total trade in Singapore declined 15.2% year on year in August to 100 billion Singapore dollars ($73.4 billion) , following the 20.9% contraction in the preceding month.

Both imports and exports fell year on year, dropping 15.6% and 14.7%, respectively.

— Lim Hui Jie

The technology sector was the S&P 500’s hardest-hit group during the week ending Sept. 15. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund lost 2.2% week to date.

Oracle led the sector’s losses, falling nearly 10% for the week after missing revenue expectations in the fiscal first quarter. Chipmaker KLA Corporation lost 8.7%, while Monolithic Power Systems also fell by more than 7%.

Meanwhile, the utilities sector saw the largest weekly gains, with the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund adding 2.8%.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. stock futures ticked up Sunday evening.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 17 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures inched up 0.03% and 0.02%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim