US stocks rebounded on Monday after an early sell-off, with the S&P 500 hitting a new record, up 0.2% and the Nasdaq rising 0.3%, led by technology shares and Walmart. The Dow Jones recovered, adding 86 points, after dropping nearly 500 points at session lows. Investors initially reacted to the Department of Justice opening a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move he called a “pretext” by President Trump to pressure the Fed into cutting interest rates. Bank stocks were among the hardest hit, with Capital One down 7% and Citigroup falling 3%, as markets also digested Trump’s plan to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for a year. Despite these headwinds, optimism over upcoming fourth-quarter earnings, especially from major banks, and expectations for a relatively mild CPI report kept broader market sentiment positive.