Stock market live Monday: S&P 500 still shy of record close, Tesla hits new high, gold best day since April

• The Dow fell 86 points, or 0.31%, for its second negative session in three
• The S&P 500 gained 9 points, or 0.27%, breaking a 2-day losing streak
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 110 points, or 1.00%, for its third positive session in four 
• The Nasdaq saw a fresh all-time high in Monday's session as well as a record close, its 37^th all-time high and 33^rd record close of 2020
• The Russell 2000 gained 0.48%, breaking a two-day losing streak     
• Dow Transports fell 0.06%, for the second negative session in three
• Seven of 11 S&P sectors were positive, led by discretionary, which gained 1.21%. - Chris Hayes

The S&P 500 finished Monday's session 0.3% higher, just shy of its record closing high of 3,386.15 from February. The equity gauge has been flirting with its all-time high since last week but failed to overtake the record. The 30-stock Dow dipped about 80 points on Monday, dragged down by a 3% drop in Boeing shares. The Nasdaq was the relative outperformer, rising about 1%.— Yun Li

• Home Construction (ITB) and S&P Homebuilders (XHB) hitting new intraday all-time highs, led by Toll Brothers which gained 5.5%
• Momentum ETF (MTUM) at a new intraday all-time high, led by Tesla, Teladoc and Zoom Video
• Consumer Goods (IYK) at a new intraday all-time high, led by Tesla, GM and Toll Brothers
• Consumer Disc SPDR (XLY) at a new intraday all-time high, led by L Brands, GM and Lennar
• Semi ETFs (SMH, SOXX) at new intraday all-time highs, led by NVIDIA and Microchip
• Russell 1000 Growth (IWF) at a new intraday all-time high, led by Tesla, Teladoc and Livongo
• Health Care SPDR (XLV) at a new intraday all-time high led by DaVita, DexCom and ResMed.—Gina Francolla, Yun Li

Shares of chipmaker Nvidia jumped 6.5% on Monday, setting a new intraday record high and pushing the company's market cap above $300 billion.  The stock has now gained 110% so far this year and is the 15th largest company in the S&P 500, according to Bespoke Investment Group. — Jesse Pound

With less than an hour left in Monday's session, the Dow fell nearly 100 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500, meanwhile, rose 0.2% but failed once again to stay above a record closing high of 3,386.15. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed with a rally of nearly 1% as Amazon popped and Alphabet gained. —Fred Imbert

Gold futures settled up 2.51% at $1,998.7 per ounce on Monday, turning in its best day since April 22 when gold gained 2.99%. The precious metal is up 31.23% year to date. Gold prices have been boosted by a massive flight-to-safety, low interest rates and fears of higher inflation.— Yun Li, Gina Francolla

Shares of Tesla jumped more than 9% on Monday, pushing the stock to a new all-time high of $1,807.80. The electric vehicle company's stock has gained 27% in the last week after the company announced a five-for-one stock split, despite the fact that the move doesn't change any of Tesla's underlying fundamentals. - Pippa Stevens 

Trading volumes were thin on Monday during the summer doldrums as Wall Street tries to retake its record high from February. With about one and a half hours left in the trading session, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the broader market index, traded just over 16.8 million shares. That's well below the ETF's 30-day volume average of nearly 62 million. — Yun Li

Piper Sandler initiated Overstock.com as overweight and said it believes "there are seismic forces at work that have dramatically improved the sales and profitability outlook for OSTK well into the future." The firm also gave the internet retailer a $140 price target. "These forces include a well-timed refocus of the business on its e-com home furnishings business (led by new management), combined with a structural shift in e-com home furnishing sales as a result of COVID," analyst Peter Keith said. Shares were up 23% in late-day trading. — Michael Bloom

The number of stocks that traded higher slightly outpace decliners at the New York Stock Exchange as Wall Street kicked off the trading week. FactSet data showed 1,538 NYSE-listed stocks were up on the day and just over 1,300 names were down. This tight trading action comes as the S&P 500 tries once again to break above its February high. —Fred Imbert

• Rackspace Technology — Rackspace stock rallied after reports said Amazon was in talks to take a minority stake in the cloud company.
• Tesla — The electric car maker jumped after a Wedbush analyst hiked his price target on the stock to $1,900 per share from $1,800 per share, citing strong car demand and the potential for a game changing announcement next month.
• PayPal — David Tepper's Appaloosa revealed a stake in PayPal, sending the stock up more than 2%.

Click here to read more. —Fred Imbert

The S&P 500 again traded just below its all-time closing high on Monday as the broader market struggled to continue its rally off the March low. The index was up 0.3%. Gains in Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft pushed the Nasdaq Composite higher by 0.8%. The Dow, however, struggled and fell 53 points, or 0.2% in midday trading. —Fred Imbert

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro on CNBC on Monday blasted executives at Eastman Kodak for their handling of a $765 million federal government loan offer to produce pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States. Shares of embattled Kodak, known for producing camera film, skyrocketed on the official announcement on July 28. However, trading activity of Kodak's stock picked up significantly the day prior. "You can't even anticipate that degree of stupidity," Navarro said on "Squawk Box." The Kodak loan has been put on pause as the Securities and Exchange Commission investigates.

Susquehanna raised its price target on Nvidia on Monday to $540 per share from $450 per share and said it sees a favorable setup heading in to the company second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday. "While some investors (and Intel) point to a back-half DC slowdown, subseasonal Street expectations for both C3Q20 and C4Q20  provide a favorable setup that leaves room for NVIDIA to upside consensus," analyst Christopher Rolland said. The firm said the company's Datacenter and Gaming business were benefiting from the stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus. Shares were up over 6% in midday trading. —Michael Bloom

BMO raised its price target on shares of Deere to a Street high of $235 per share from $150 per share on Monday morning. "We think much of the resilience behind Deere's stock is the result of demand across much of the company's end markets likely performing better than feared, as well as an anticipated strong bounce for agricultural equipment since last peaking in 2013," analyst Joel Tiss said. "And Construction equipment has quickly rebounded from recent lows due to a robust backlog of construction projects that were interrupted by COVID-19 restrictions," he said. Deere share are up 9% this month - Michael Bloom

The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) rose nearly 1% on Monday to an all-time high after the homebuilders sentiment index hit a record. Builder confidence in the newly built, single-family home market jumped 6 points to 78 in August on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment. The index is now at the highest level in the 35-year history of the monthly series and matches the record set in December 1998. — Maggie Fitzgerald 

Shares of Apollo-owned Rackspace Technology soared more than 12% on Monday after Reuters, citing sources, reported Amazon is in talks to take a minority stake in the cloud company. Rackspace's technology works in tandem with Amazon's cloud business, Amazon Web Services and the partnership would help create greater synergies between the entities. Rackspace also does business with Microsoft, Alphabet and VMware, among others. —Maggie Fitzgerald 

Stocks rose out of the gate on Monday, as the major averages looked to build on last week's gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68 points for a gain of 0.25%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.33%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded 0.6% higher. - Pippa Stevens 

David Tepper's Appaloosa Management opened positions in payment companies Visa, Mastercard and PayPal during the second quarter, which Jim Cramer said was "spot on."

"This is the anti-bank trade and they keep going ... I don't know what stops PayPal, that is just a juggernaut," the "Mad Money" host said Monday on "Squawk on the Street." Shares of PayPal have gained 77% this year.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about Tepper's second quarter moves here. - Pippa Stevens 

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made a number of changes to its portfolio during the second quarter, including reducing stakes in financial companies while picking up shares of Barrick Gold. Reviewing the portfolio changes, Morgan Stanley noted the cautious stance. "The company [Berkshire Hathaway] has largely reinvested the proceeds from equity sales in Treasury Bills, reflecting caution in the current environment," the firm wrote in a note to clients.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about Buffett's second quarter moves here. - Pippa Stevens 

China's central bank on Monday added liquidity to money markets while keeping its interest rate steady as the economy recovers from the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The People's Bank of China injected 700 billion yuan ($101 billion) of one-year medium-term lending facility loans. The central bank also left the interest rate on the funds unchanged at 2.95% for the fourth straight month. The Shanghai Composite closed up 2.3% on Monday following the announcement.— Yun Li

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Brinker to buy from hold.
• Telsey upgraded Burlington and Ross to outperform from market perform.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Teladoc to outperform from neutral.
• Piper Sandler downgraded Chevron to neutral from overweight.
• Deutsche Bank added a catalyst call buy on General Motors.

Pro Subscribers can read more here. - Michael Bloom

Goldman Sachs raised its 2020 year-end S&P 500 target to 3,600 — about 7% higher than where the index currently trades — but said that the election represents a "significant risk" to the target. The firm's prior forecast was 3,000. 

"The S&P 500 level has returned to its pre-pandemic high, but the building blocks supporting the price have shifted dramatically," Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin wrote in a note to clients. "Looking forward, a falling ERP [equity risk premium] will outweigh a rise in bond yields, and combined with our above-consensus EPS forecast, will lift the S&P 500 index to 3600 by year-end," he added. - Pippa Stevens

The U.S. is reportedly preparing to increase restrictions on China-based Huawei, according to Reuters. The Trump administration is expected to address the tightened regulations on the semiconductor company later on Monday, according to officials briefed on the matter. The move builds on restrictions announced in May, which included blocking the company from obtaining semiconductors without a special license. - Pippa Stevens, Reuters

Barrick Gold jumped more than 7% during premarket trading after a filling with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday showed that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought the stock during the second quarter. The position is worth about $562 million which is small for Buffett, but makes him the eleventh largest holder of the stock, according to FactSet.

To read more about Berkshire Hathaway's moves during the second quarter, click here. - Pippa Stevens, Yun Li

U.S. stock index futures were little changed during early trading on Monday. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures implied an opening loss of 2 points. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 traded 0.3% and 0.7% higher.

The major averages are all coming off a week of gains, as the S&P 500 continues to inch closer to its February all-time high level. The index briefly traded above its record close last week, but so far has yet to overtake its intraday high. - Pippa Stevens