S&P 500 is little changed, rallying back from session lows despite Powell probe, bank sell-off

Stocks rallied off their session lows, with the S&P 500 now little changed as investors shook off the Department of Justice opening a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The S&P 500 hovered around the flatline, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 74 points, or 0.2%. Indexes rallied off their worst levels of the session, helped by gains in Walmart and some technology stocks. The Dow was down nearly 500 points, and the S&P 500 was off 0.5% at session lows.

Trump’s call to cap credit card rates for one year at 10% was also causing some market indigestion to start the week. Critics fear Trump’s plan to aid affordability would backfire and restrict lending, hurting consumers — along with bank profitability. Bank stocks were the hardest hit Monday, with Citigroup down 3%. JPMorgan and Bank of America were off by around 2%. Capital One shares slid 6%.

“It doesn’t matter that much, in some sense,” Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage, told CNBC. “I think it’s some noise, and it’s not even pushing rates around that much ... the focus is going to be on data,” he continued, pointing to the upcoming release of the consumer price index for December on Tuesday.