U.S. stocks start the week teetering on either side of unchanged, trying to move up on hopes of a last-minute tariff war reprieve.

President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods is supposed to go into effect on Tuesday, but there are murmurs that this may not happen as planned. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that Mexico proposed to match the U.S. tariffs on China to avoid being hit with Trump’s tariffs and urged Canada to follow suit.

“We’ll see. The Mexican leadership has offered to do that,” Bessent said in an interview on CBS' Face The Nation. “We haven’t heard from the Canadians, but I think that would be a very good start.”

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday in a Fox News interview the tax that would be levied against Mexico and Canada on Tuesday is still “fluid,” meaning it could be less than the 25% that's been proposed. However, the additional 10% duty on China imports, also slated for Tuesday, is “set," he said.

Bessent added that he didn't expect the proposed tariffs to raise inflation, partly because China will “eat any tariffs that go on.”

Due partly to tariff worries, Wall Street's three main indexes logged their first monthly decline this year in February, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq coming close to a 10% drop from its all-time high. The Nasdaq's 4% loss marked its worst month since April 2024.

Around 9:55 a.m. ET, the broad S&P 500 dipped 0.064%, or 3.81 points, to 5,950.69. The blue-chip Dow added 0.2%, or 86.88 points, to 43,927.79, and the Nasdaq rose 0.30%, or 56.74 points, to 18,790.54. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield inched up to 4.235%.

This week also brings data on the labor market, including the key February jobs report on Friday.

• Capri agreed to sell Versace to Prada for nearly $1.6 billion, Bloomberg reported. Shares of Capri, a luxury-fashion conglomerate, jumped 6.27%.

• Intel shares rose 3.12% after Reuters reported that chip designers Nvidia and Broadcom are both running tests on Intel’s 18A manufacturing process. If Nvidia and Broadcom decide the tests are satisfactory, they could end up becoming customers of Intel's chip-manufacturing business. Nvidia and Broadcom were each down about 3%.

• Kroger's chief executive was ousted after its board's probe into his personal conduct. Shares of the grocery chain shed 1.44%.

• Defense stocks like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin were fractionally higher after the U.S. approved a $3 billion arms deal to Israel.

• Chipotle added almost 2.5% after the burrito chain's chief executive said the company intends to absorb, for now, any extra costs tariffs might bring.