TheChek News Flow

The stock market ended the Thursday session on a mixed note. The S&P 500 lost 0.5% after spending the entire session in negative territory while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq extended this week's gain to 2.5% while the S&P 500 will enter the Friday session up 1.7% for the week.

Yesterday's dovish FOMC policy statement pressured the greenback, but the Dollar Index (99.23, +0.67) wasted no time, stringing together a swift comeback. The index added 0.7% today and returned to Tuesday's low. Notably, the euro retraced the bulk of yesterday's move, returning below 1.0650 versus the dollar.

Likewise, the dollar strength weighed on crude oil, sending the energy component lower by 2.5% to $45.50/bbl. In turn, this kept the energy sector (-1.7%) near the bottom of the barrel while the other commodity-related sector—materials (-1.7%)—finished just behind energy. Steelmakers kept the sector pressured after Nucor (NUE 46.11, -3.16) cut its guidance well below analyst estimates. Shares of NUE tumbled 6.4% while Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 31.07, -1.10) fell 3.4%.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, industrials (-0.7%) and financials (-1.0%) struggled while consumer discretionary (-0.2%) and technology (-0.2%) displayed relative strength.

The largest sector by

weight—technology—spent

the day near its flat line as heavyweights like

Apple (AAPL 127.50, -0.97), Google (GOOGL 563.67, -2.49), and Facebook (FB 82.75, +1.84)traded in mixed fashion while chipmakers outperformed with the PHLX Semiconductor Index adding 0.2%.

Conversely, the relative strength gave a boost to the Nasdaq, but the index also received significant support from biotechnology. Biogen Idec (BIIB 433.65, +5.72) jumped 1.3% after Credit Suisse raised its price target for the stock to $500 from $400 while the broader iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 365.25, +7.11) spiked 2.0%, logging its sixth consecutive advance.

In addition to boosting the Nasdaq, biotechnology helped the health care sector (+0.5%) finish well ahead of other groups. The countercyclical sector extended its week-to-date gain to 3.7%, overtaking the utilities sector (-1.0%), which narrowed its weekly gain to 3.3%.

Treasuries retraced a portion of yesterday's advance with the 10-yr yield spiking five basis points to 1.97%.

Today's participation was a bit light with roughly 715 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included Initial Claims, Current Account Balance, Leading Indicators, and Philadelphia Fed Survey:

• The initial claims level increased to 291,000 from an upwardly revised 290,000 (from 289,000) while the consensus expected an increase to 293,000 
  • There were no special factors impacting this week's claims reading 
• The current account deficit for the fourth quarter totaled $113.50 billion while the consensus expected the deficit to hit $105.00 billion 
  • The third quarter deficit was revised to $98.90 billion from $100.30 billion 
• The Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey dropped slightly to 5.0 in March from 5.2 in February while the consensus expected an increase to 6.9 
  • While the overall index was virtually unchanged from a month ago, the underlying details showed that a stark weakness developed over the past few weeks 
    • Shipments—or production—moved into a deep contraction in March as the related index dropped to -7.8 from +8.1 in February. 
    • New orders growth slowed as that index fell to 3.9 in March from 5.4 in February. Unfilled orders entered an even larger contraction, dropping from +7.3 in February to -13.8 in March. 
• The Leading Indicators report for February was up 0.2%, which is what the consensus expected 

There is no economic data on tomorrow's schedule.

• Nasdaq Composite +5.4% YTD 
• Russell 2000 +4.1% YTD 
• S&P 500 +1.5% YTD 
• Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.8% ytd