Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's trade featured a negative bias. Broad selling activity had the major indices in negative territory through the entire session. Ultimately, the indices settled near their lows of the session after selling increased in some heavily-weighted names that had been trading higher, acting as a limiting factor for index-level losses.
Amazon.com (AMZN 182.02, -0.13, -0.1%), Microsoft (MSFT 429.17, -1.15, -0.3%), and Alphabet (GOOG 177.40, -0.62, -0.4%) were among the standouts in that respect. AMZN had been up as much as 1.1% today, MSFT was up 0.11% at its high, and GOOG showed a 0.14% gain at its best level.
The broad retreat today left all 11 S&P 500 sectors with losses. The energy sector was among the top laggards, dropping 1.8%, amid falling commodity prices. WTI crude oil futures fell 0.8% to $79.25/bbl and natural gas futures slid 5.7% to $2.66/mmbtu.
Sector component Marathon Oil (MRO 28.68, +2.23, +8.4%) went against the grain, jumping more than 8% after news that ConocoPhillips (COP 115.25, -3.71, -3.1%) will acquire MRO in an all-stock transaction.
The industrial sector was the next worst performer, dropping 1.4%. Weak airline components weighed on the sector after American Airlines (AAL 11.62, -1.82, -13.5%) lowered its Q2 EPS below consensus and lowered its adjusted operating margin and TRASM guidance.
The overall downside bias was driven by some normal consolidation activity after a big run recently. With today's losses, the S&P 500 is still 4.6% higher this month and the Nasdaq Composite is 8.1% higher since the start of May.
The price action in Treasuries also contributed to the downside bias in equities. The 10-yr note yield rose eight basis points to 4.62% and the 2-yr note yield settled unchanged at 4.98%. Yields were already moving higher, but today's $44 billion 7-yr Treasury note sale, which met weak demand following this week's poor slate of note offerings, sparked increased selling action.
Today's economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index, which declined 5.7% with refinance applications plunging 14% and purchase applications dropping 1%. Market participants also received the Fed's latest Beige Book, which said national economic activity continued to expand from early April to mid-May, but the release didn't garner outsized reactions from bonds or equities.
- Nasdaq Composite: +12.7% YTD
- S&P 500:+10.4% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +5.0% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +2.0% YTD
- Russell 2000: +0.5% YTD
Looking ahead, Thursday's economic calendar features:
- 8:30 ET: Q1 GDP -- second estimate (consensus 1.3%; prior 1.6%), Q1 GDP Deflator -- second estimate (consensus 3.1%; prior 3.1%), Weekly Initial Claims (consensus 219,000; prior 215,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.794 mln), advance April goods trade balance (prior -$91.8 bln), advance April Retail Inventories (prior 0.3%), and advance April Wholesale Inventories (prior -0.4%)
- 10:00 ET: April Pending Home Sales (consensus -0.5%; prior 3.4%)
- 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior +78 bcf)
- 11:00 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior +1.83 mln)