Closing Market Summary: Equities Finish Monday MixedEquities opened the week with a mixed performance; the Nasdaq (+0.4%) finished at another record close, its fourth in the last five sessions, while the S&P 500 (-0.1%) and the Dow (-0.3%) settled with modest losses. Monday's action was fairly range-bound with the benchmark index staying true to a seven-point range from start to finish.
Investors understandably lacked conviction on Monday ahead of several notable events on this week's calendar, including:
- a Senate vote on health-care reform, which could take place as early as Tuesday
- the Fed's latest policy directive, which will cross the wires at 14:00 ET on Wednesday
- the advance estimate for second-quarter GDP, which will be released at 8:30 ET on Friday
- and a slew of influential earnings reports that will be delivered throughout the week
The cautious sentiment was present in pre-market action on Monday morning, leaving the major averages modestly lower at the opening bell. Nine of eleven sectors finished in negative territory with the two advancers being the top-weighted technology (+0.3%) and financials (+0.3%) groups.
Financials exhibited relative strength throughout the session while tech stocks took awhile to come around. In the end, the positive performances of mega-cap tech names like Apple (AAPL 152.09, +1.82), Facebook (FB 166.00, +1.57), and Alphabet (GOOGL 998.31, +4.47) were enough to push the tech sector to victory. Chipmakers underperformed, leaving the PHLX Semiconductor Index lower by 0.4%.
As for the declining sectors, they finished with losses ranging between 0.1% and 1.0%. The telecom services (-1.0%) and utilities (-0.9%) groups were the weakest performers while the remaining laggards finished with losses of no more than 0.4%.
The consumer discretionary sector (-0.4%) underperformed following a negative reaction on the earnings front. Hasbro (HAS 105.00, -10.95) dropped 9.4% after concerns surrounding economic conditions overseas overshadowed the company's better than expected earnings. Similarly, Stanley Black & Decker (SWK 143.70, -3.09) slipped 2.1% despite beating top and bottom line estimates.
In addition, Hibbett Sports (HIBB 13.10, -6.60) plunged 33.5% after the company issued a profit warning, saying that it expects comparable-store sales to drop around 10.0% in the second quarter. Peer Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS 35.12, -2.04) also sold off following the announcement, dropping 5.5%.
Crude oil jumped 1.3% to $46.36/bbl on Monday following news that Saudi Arabia will limit its oil exports to 6.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, nearly one million bpd below the level it produced a year ago. In addition, Nigeria, which was originally exempt from the OPEC-led production cut agreement, has pledged to limit its exports to 1.8 million barrels per day.
However, the energy sector, which typically moves in tandem with crude oil, lost 0.3%. Halliburton (HAL 42.51, -1.87) weighed on the sector, dropping 4.2%, after saying that North American customers are 'tapping the brakes'. However, the company did beat top and bottom line estimates.
In the bond market, U.S. Treasuries settled the day with modest losses. The benchmark 10-yr yield, which moves inversely to the price of the 10-yr Treasury note, climbed one basis point to 2.25%.
Reviewing Monday's economic data, which was limited to June Existing Home Sales:
- Existing home sales for June decreased 1.8% from May to an annualized rate of 5.52 million units while the consensus expected a reading of 5.58 million. The prior month's reading was left unrevised at 5.62 million.
- The key takeaway from the report is that neither the availability nor the affordability of homes is high, which is keeping sales activity from being all that it could be otherwise.
On Tuesday, investors will receive the May FHFA Housing Price Index (consensus 0.7%) at 9:00 ET, the May S&P 500 Case-Shiller Home Price Index (Briefing.com consensus 5.7%) at 9:00 ET, and the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for July at 10:00 ET.
In addition, several notable companies will report earnings on Tuesday morning, including 3M (MMM 210.00, -1.16), McDonald's (MCD 151.85, -2.07), United Technologies (UTX 123.13, -0.36), DuPont (DD 84.35, -0.19), and Caterpillar (CAT 108.18, +1.59), among many others.
- Nasdaq Composite +19.1% YTD
- S&P 500 +10.3% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average +8.9% YTD
- Russell 2000 +6.0% YTD
