Stocks were lower on Monday as last week's rally lost some steam and investors looked ahead towards a big week for the retail sector. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 200 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.9% and 1%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled on Monday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.89% or -35.68 points to 3,957.25

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.63% or -211.16 points to 33,536.70

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -1.12% or -127.11 points to 11,196.22

Last week, stocks closed at their biggest gains in months as traders were encouraged by slowing inflation in October, with many investors betting it will cause the Federal Reserve to shift its monetary policy in the near-term. The S&P 500 rose nearly 6%, while the Nasdaq gained about 8%.

"This week marks a bit of an information lull for markets as we're past the brunt of third quarter earnings season, past the end-of-month/start-of-month economic data deluge, the busy holiday season is about to start, and we're a mere seven weeks away from 2023," said Chris Hussey, vice president of investment research at Goldman Sachs (GS  ), quoted by CNBC.

"But on the back of last Thursday's encouraging CPI release, markets are contemplating the macro outlook, the possibility that inflation may have finally peaked, the path for rates from here, as well as the possibility of a recession," he added.

As the third-quarter earnings season is starting to come to a close, retail will be in focus this week with Walmart (WMT  ), Target (TGT  ) and Home Depot (HD  ) set to report. Also on the docket, monthly retail sales data for October is due out on Wednesday, with economists expecting headline sales to grow from September's unexpectedly flat report.

Elsewhere, Amazon (AMZN  ) is reportedly planning to lay off about 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles this week. The cuts would be the largest in the company's history, and would primarily impact Amazon's devices organization, retail deivion and human resources, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Separately, Bank of America (BAC  ) has removed Amazon from its U.S. 1 list, which lists the firm's best investment ideas. BAC noted that Amazon has been impacted like others in the technology sector as market participants rotated out of growth stocks, with the stock down over 40% year-to-date. The company has also suffered from broader retail changes, with consumers spending more on services than goods as inflation pressures purchasing power.