Investing.com-- The S&P 500 closed lower Monday pressured by rising Treasury yields as Fed speakers continue to echo the need for a more gradual pace of rate cuts, though a Nvidia-led climb in tech kept losses in check.

At 4:00 p.m.ET (2000 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 344 points, or 0.8%, the S&P 500 index dropped 0.2%, and the NASDAQ Composite gained 0.3%.

Treasury yields rise as Fed speakers call for modest cuts

The 2-year Treasury yield, which is sensitive to Fed policy, jumped 7 basis points to 4.025%, and the 10-year Treasury climbed above 4%, as investors appear more cautious over the rate cut path ahead.

The rise in rates come as Fed speakers caution on a fast pace of rate cuts ahead.

"Right now I see modest cuts over the next quarters," Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said.

Nvidia swells to record ahead of tech earnings

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) jumped 4% to close at a fresh record high, taking its market cap above $3.5 trillion for the first time ever, keeping a lid on losses in the broader market as investors looked ahead to the start of big tech earnings.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will be the biggest company to report this week, on Wednesday, with the electric vehicle maker’s earnings in close focus after the revealing of its robotaxi earlier this month largely underwhelmed. 

Prints from a string of major chipmaking firms are also due this week, coming after earnings from industry bellwethers ASML (NASDAQ:ASML) and TSMC (NYSE:TSM) provided mixed cues on demand. 

Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN), Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) and Lam Research Corp (NASDAQ:LRCX) are among the majors chip stocks set to report, while in the broader tech sector, IBM (NYSE:IBM), is also due this week.