Closing Summary: Stocks, Bonds, and Gold Settle Near Highs
The major averages snapped their two-day losing streak with the Nasdaq Composite leading today's charge. The tech-heavy index rose 0.6%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.5% with nine sectors posting gains.
Equity indices displayed opening strength, but the early advance was a bit shaky as the Russell 2000 (+0.1%) had a tough time keeping pace with the broader market. The small-cap index underperformed throughout the session, while the other key indices powered to new highs after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the June FOMC meeting.
Most notably, the minutes revealed the belief among officials that investors have displayed too much complacency with regard to risk. Furthermore, the minutes indicated that the committee has discussed its exit strategy tools with the general expectation of a final $15 billion taper taking place in October if the current outlook holds up.
The subsequent rally in equities could likely be attributed to participants being encouraged by the relatively consistent language in the minutes. However, it was a bit striking to see a concurrent spike in Treasuries and gold futures.
The 10-yr note hovered on its session low ahead of the release, but reclaimed its entire loss in short order. As a result, the benchmark yield ended at 2.55% after being near 2.60% when the minutes crossed the wires. One could argue that this spike was also related to the consistent language in the minutes with participants viewing the status quo at the Fed as a sign that the central bank could fall behind on its growth forecast.
Elsewhere, gold futures spiked to $1329.00/ozt to register a solid 1.0% gain, suggesting some participants believe the Fed could be underestimating inflationary pressures given the apparent lack of urgency to move off the zero bound.
The consumer discretionary sector (+1.2%) spent the entire session in the lead thanks to support from restaurants and retail names. Interestingly, the retail sector appeared unaffected by cautious comments made by the CEO of The Container Store (TCS 24.80, -2.27). The specialty retailer tumbled 8.9% following its earnings miss while the CEO said the retail industry as a whole was in a ‘funk.'
Unlike the discretionary sector, other top-weighted groups settled on a mixed note with respect to the broader market. Health care (+0.4%) and technology (+0.5%) ended essentially in line with the S&P 500, while financials (+0.3%) and industrials (+0.2%) were limited to slim gains.
The modest uptick among industrials masked the relative strength of transport stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average rose 0.5% with 16 components settling higher. Matson (MATX 28.99, +1.64) was a standout, surging 6.0% after BB&T upgraded the stock to ‘Buy' from ‘Hold.' Airlines also displayed broad strength following positive monthly data from American Airlines (AAL 41.98, +1.73).
On the downside, the utilities sector (-0.2%) was the lone decliner following two days of relative strength.
Participation was below average with 557 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data was limited to the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, which rose 1.9% to follow last week's downtick of 0.2%.
Tomorrow, weekly initial claims will be reported at 8:30 ET (consensus 311K), while the Wholesale Inventories report for May will cross the wires at 10:00 ET (consensus 0.5%).
S&P 500 +6.7% YTD
Nasdaq Composite +5.8% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +2.5% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.8% YTD