US stocks trade mixed ahead of Independence Day as investors hope to extend gains into 2nd half of 2023

• US stocks were mixed in a shortened day of trading on Monday ahead of Independence Day.
• The S&P 500 surged 16% in the first half of the year, and investors are hoping to extend those gains into the second half.
• Tesla stock surged more than 6% after the company announced second-quarter deliveries that beat analyst estimates.

US stocks were mixed on Monday, which is a shortened day of trading ahead of Tuesday's Independence day. The stock market closes early at 1 p.m. on Monday, and is closed all day on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 surged 16% in the first half of the year, while the Nasdaq 100 was up almost 39%. Investors are hoping to extend those gains into the second half of the year, looking to avoid too much turbulence in the face of recession forecasts and the prospect of more tightening by the Federal Reserve. 

For the gains to continue, The Fed will have to see more progress on the inflation front, and the hype around artificial intelligence will need to materialize into something significant, according to Fundstrat's Tom Lee, who raised his year-end S&P 500 price target to 4,825 on Monday. 

Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET opening bell on Monday:

• S&P 500: 4,446.86, down 0.08%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,335.74, down 0.21% (71.86 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 13,821.96, up 0.25% 

Here's what else is happening this morning:

• Not all investors are feeling bullish. PIMCO CIO Dan Ivascyn is warning about a "harder landing" for the global economy and arguing that investors are too bullish about central banks' inflation fight.
• Tesla stock surged nearly 6% after the company announced second-quarter deliveries that beat analyst's most bullish expectations. The company delivered 466,000 vehicles in the quarter.
• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Tesla's recent price cuts were a "smart poker move" that helped the company make record deliveries in the quarter.

In commodities, bonds and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.52% to $71.01 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped 0.50% to $75.79.
• Gold jumped 0.20% to $1,933.30 per ounce.
• The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell 3 basis points to 3.80%.
• Bitcoin rose 0.06% to $30,637, while ether jumped 1.44% to $$1,965.