Closing Stock Market Summary
The S&P 500 closed the session near its high of the day with a modest 0.2% loss.
The negative bias was partially driven by profit-taking activity after big gains since late October. There was not a lot of conviction from sellers, though, in this seasonally strong period for the market. Volume at the NYSE and Nasdaq was lower than average.
Including today's modest declines, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are still up 8.2% and 10.5%, respectively, so far this month.
Relative weakness in some mega cap names weighed on index performance today.
NVIDIA (NVDA 499.44, -4.65, -0.9%) was a standout in that regard ahead of its market-moving earnings report after today's close. Amazon.com (AMZN 143.90, -2.23, -1.5%) was another standout loser on reports of Jeff Bezos selling some stock.
Still, NVDA and AMZN both recovered from their worst levels as the broader market climbed off session lows, having been down as much as 2.4% and 3.2%, respectively.
Market participants were digesting a mixed batch of earnings from retailers as well. Lowe's (LOW 198.06, -6.38, -3.1%), Best Buy (BBY 67.62, -0.49, -0.7%), and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO 16.63, -3.12, -15.8%) all traded down after reporting earnings while Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS 121.59, +2.58, +2.2%) and Burlington Stores (BURL 165.06, +28.35, +20.7%) closed higher after their earnings results.
Seven of the S&P 500 sectors registered a loss and four sectors saw modest gains. The health care sector (+0.6%) closed at the top of the leaderboard while the heavily-weighted information technology sector (-0.8%) saw the biggest decline.
Separately, the FOMC Minutes for the Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 meeting indicated the committee's view that the Fed can proceed more carefully now, but may consider monetary policy tightening if incoming data indicated that progress stalled on bringing inflation in-line with the Fed's 2.0% target. In other words, they didn't say anything the market hadn't already heard. Accordingly, the reaction to the minutes was muted.
The 2-yr note yield settled three basis points lower at 4.87% and the 10-yr note yield settled unchanged at 4.42%, having digested the news that existing home sales in October proceeded at their slowest annual sales pace (3.79 million) since August 2010.
- Nasdaq Composite: +35.7% YTD
- S&P 500: +18.2% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +5.9% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +4.3% YTD
- Russell 2000: +1.3% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- October Existing Home Sales 3.79 mln (consensus 3.90 mln); Prior was revised to 3.95 mln from 3.96 mln
- The key takeaway from the report is that sales of existing homes continue to be crimped by high mortgage rates, high selling prices, and limited inventory.
Wednesday's economic calendar features:
- 7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior 2.8%)
- 8:30 ET: Weekly Initial Claims ( consensus 227,000; prior 231,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.865 mln), October Durable Orders (consensus -3.1%; prior 4.7%), and Durable Orders ex-transportation ( consensus 0.2%; prior 0.5%)
- 10:00 ET: Final November University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (consensus 60.9; prior 60.4)
- 10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior 3.60 mln)
- 12:00 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior +60 bcf)