Closing Stock Market SummaryThe stock market started this last session of the holiday-shortened week on a softer note as investors digested another weak economic release. Things improved considerably, though, around mid-morning thanks to some mega cap stocks staging a strong recovery from their lows of the day.
The main indices all closed near their best levels today, albeit on below-average volume. Alphabet (GOOG 108.90, +3.95, +3.8%), Microsoft (MSFT 291.60, +7.26, +2.6%), Apple (AAPL 164.66, +0.90, +0.6%), and Amazon.com (AMZN 102.60, +0.96, +1.0%) all had an outsized influence on index level performance.
The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) logged a 0.8% gain while the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) closed with a 0.1% gain.
Despite today's gains, the growth concerns that drove price action in recent sessions did not completely dissipate as evidenced by the underperformance of economically-sensitive sectors.
The S&P 500 energy (-1.5%), materials (-0.2%), and industrials (-0.03%) sectors were the lone laggards to close in the red. On the flip side, the communication services (+1.7%) and information technology (+0.7%) sectors were among the best performers, thanks to gains in their respective mega cap constituents. Other notable outperformers were the utilities (+0.7%) and real estate (+0.7%) sectors.
The 2-yr Treasury note yield rose five basis points today to 3.81% and the 10-yr note yield settled unchanged at 3.29%.
As a reminder, the stock market will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday. The U.S. Treasury market will be open until 12:00 ET.
Looking ahead to Friday, the Employment Situation report for March will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
- Nasdaq Composite: +15.5% YTD
- S&P 500: +6.9% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +0.7% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +1.0% YTD
- Russell 2000: -0.4% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Weekly Initial Claims 228K ( consensus 203K); Prior was revised to 246K from 198K; Weekly Continuing Claims 1.823 mln; Prior was revised to 1.817 mln from 1.689 mln
- The key takeaway from the report is that it featured a revision to the seasonal adjustment factor, which resulted in big upward revisions to figures from recent weeks a sizable miss in this week's report. That said, the higher level of claims will invite some questions about the strength of the labor market after last week's release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey for February showed a big drop in openings.
- Weekly EIA Natural Gas Inventories showed a draw of 23 bcf versus a draw of 47 bcf last week.
