Closing Stock Market Summary
Stocks bounced back today after yesterday's retreat. The major indices faded from their highs in the afternoon trade, but still closed with gains ranging from 0.2% to 0.7%. A buy-the-dip mentality, which as worked well for participants since the start of the year, contributed to the positive bias.
Renewing buying activity in growth stocks and the tech space following impressive earnings and outlook from cybersecurity software provider CrowdStrike (CRWD 329.57, +32.01, +10.8%) also contributed to the upside moves.
Many stocks participated in today's broad rally. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) gained 0.6% and nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher. The utilities sector (+1.0%) saw the largest gain, followed by the heavily-weighted information technology sector (+0.9%).
Meanwhile, losses in some mega cap constituents led the communication services (-0.2%) and consumer discretionary (-0.4%) sectors to underperform the broader market.
Market participants were also digesting the first day of Fed Chair Powell's semiannual monetary policy testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, which failed to produce any surprising headlines. Mr. Powell acknowledged that it will likely be appropriate to lower the fed funds rate range later this year.
Rate cut expectations were little changed by the remarks. The probability of a 25 basis points rate cut to 5.00-5.25% at June FOMC meeting is 71.4% now versus 72.4% yesterday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
In other news, New York Community Bancorp (NYCB 3.46, +0.24, +7.5%) rallied after announcing an over $1 billion equity investment anchored by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital, Hudson Bay and Reverence Capital. Shares initially plunged more than 40.0% today on a Wall Street Journal report that the company was seeking to raise capital.
The 10-yr note yield slid three basis points to 4.10% and the 2-yr note yield settled one basis point higher.
- S&P 500: +7.0% YTD
- Nasdaq Composite: +6.8% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +5.7% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +2.6% YTD
- Russell 2000: +2.0% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications 9.7%; Prior -5.6%
- February ADP Employment Change 140K (consensus 150K); Prior was revised to 111K from 107K
- January JOLTS - Job Openings 8.863 mln; Prior was revised to 8.889 mln from 9.026 mln
- January Wholesale Inventories -0.3% (consensus -0.1%); Prior 0.4%
Thursday's economic calendar features:
- 8:30 ET: Weekly Initial Claims (consensus 217,000; prior 215,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.905 mln), January Trade Balance (consensus -$63.3 bln; prior -$62.2 bln), revised Q4 Productivity (consensus 3.1%; prior 3.2%) and Unit Labor Costs (consensus 0.6%; prior 0.5%)
- 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior -96 bcf)
- 15:00 ET: January Consumer Credit (consensus $10.0 bln; prior $1.6 bln)