Wall Street closed out August on a cautious note Monday, with three of the four major indices finishing in the red on the final trading day of the month. The S&P 500 dipped 0.30% to settle at 7,678.17, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a harder hit, falling 0.65% to 52,822.11. The Russell 2000 small-cap index declined 0.62% to 2,927.54, signaling broad-based softness beyond the mega-cap universe.
The Nasdaq Composite was the lone bright spot among the benchmarks, eking out a modest gain of 0.05% to close at 26,018.39 — largely on the back of Tesla's outsized rally. TSLA jumped 5.51% to $367.95, giving tech-heavy indices a meaningful lift even as the rest of the market struggled to find footing.
Amazon was the session's most notable drag, shedding 2.50% to $259.77. The decline weighed on both the Nasdaq and the broader consumer discretionary sector, underscoring a risk-off tone among investors as they repositioned portfolios heading into September — historically one of the weakest months of the year for equities.
Gold continued to shine as a safe-haven asset, with the precious metal pricing at $4,459.95, reflecting persistent demand for defensive stores of value amid month-end uncertainty.