the techheavy nasdaq composite is coming off its eighth consecutive weekly gain its longest winning streak since 2019 us stocks dipped on tuesday to kick off a short week of trading stalling a rally that has seen indexes climb to their highest levels of the year the sp 500 fell 05  the dow jones industrial average shed more than 200 points down 07 the nasdaq composite edged 02 lower the major indexes have marched higher in recent weeks as enthusiasm around artificial intelligence sent investors flocking to shares of megacap tech stocks the techheavy nasdaq composite is coming off its eighth consecutive weekly gain its longest winning streak since 2019 the sp 500 rose for five straight weeks its longest stretch since 2021 “the markets have become a little bit extended from a valuation and sentiment perspective” said dave grecsek managing director in investment strategy and research at aspiriant investors have turned optimistic about stocks bullish sentiment is at the highest level since november 2021 according to the latest american association of individual investors survey as a contrarian indicator high levels of optimism among investors could signal a decline in stocks ahead the sp 500 is up 14 this year trading at about 19 times projected earnings over the next 12 months according to factset that is up from a multiple of roughly 17 at the beginning of the year and higher than the fiveyear average of 186 market participants often use the ratio of price to earnings as a gauge for whether stocks appear cheap or expensive in economic data us housing starts for may came in higher than expected driven by both singlefamily and multifamily projects shares of home builders rose with pultegroup adding 19 and dr horton gaining 16 the strong housingmarket indicator is the latest signal showing the us economy remains robust even as the federal reserve attempts to quell inflation through aggressive interestrate increases fed officials held interest rates steady last week after 10 consecutive increases but signaled they were prepared to raise rates next month if the economy and inflation don’t cool more “we keep expecting a recession but all of the indicators are pointing towards a very slow crawl out of the inflation spiral” said victoria bills chief investment strategist at banrion capital management “inflation is going to continue to be very sticky” fed chair jerome powell is set to testify before congress on wednesday and thursday market participants will be attuned to messaging from centralbank officials that could provide clues about the path of rates moving forward the benchmark yield on the us 10year treasury note eased to 3726 on tuesday from 3768 friday us markets were closed on monday for the juneteenth holiday overseas chinese banks trimmed benchmark interest rates on loans to households and businesses in a welltelegraphed move as beijing attempts to revive its flagging economic rebound oil and energy stocks fell as traders worried the move by beijing officials could reflect underlying weakness in global demand brent crude pulled back about 02 to 7590 a barrel the sp 500 energy sector dropped more than 2 the worst performing segment of the broad index uslisted shares of chinese companies slipped jdcom and pdd each fell roughly 7 alibaba declined 45 after the ecommerce company said it was replacing its chief executive officer the shanghai composite index eased 05 while the hang seng index in hong kong dropped 15