U.S. stock indices open the session lower, with Nasdaq experiencing the smallest loss.

The performance of U.S. stock indices showed a clear divergence at the beginning of trading on Monday, as investors prepared for the upcoming year-end holiday scheduled for later in the week.

The main stock indices on Wall Street faced significant losses, except for the Nasdaq index, which only incurred slight losses, following the profits reported by defense and weapons manufacturer Axon, as well as Palantir and MicroStrategy stocks, after the announcement of their inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 index.

On the other hand, the losses experienced by U.S. stock indices were backed by negative data on durable goods sales and new homes in the United States, coinciding with a drop in the Consumer Confidence Index released by the Conference Board to its lowest level in three months, after the Governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve stated last week that the central bank might slow down the pace of interest rate cuts in preparation for the potential impacts of tariffs that the elected U.S. president intends to impose, which could lead to higher inflation rates.

In terms of trading, the performance of U.S. stock indices at the beginning of today's Wall Street session was as follows:

• The Dow Jones 30 index fell by 0.56% to record 42,601.84 points.
• The S&P 500 index dropped by approximately 0.22% to 5,917.07 points.
• The Nasdaq 100 index remained stable, with a marginal decline of about 0.02%, recording 19,569.12 points.
• The Russell 2000 index for small U.S. companies fell by approximately 0.94% to 2,221.82 points.