Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's advance left the major indices near session highs at the closing bell with gains ranging from 0.5% to 1.1%. Today's action was spearheaded by the mega cap stocks, a dose of AI enthusiasm, a positive response to the $16 billion 20-yr bond auction, and ongoing buying activity in a seasonally strong period for the market.
Microsoft (MSFT 377.44, +7.59, +2.1%), which benefitted from the news that it hired OpenAI's ex-CEO Sam Altman to lead its AI team, and AI chip leader NVIDIA (NVDA 504.19, +11.21, +2.3%), which reports earnings after Tuesday's close, were standout leaders today. Other semiconductor stocks came along for the ride and composed a valuable leadership group today as well. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) rose 1.2% and the PHLX Semiconductor Index jumped 1.5%.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) logged a modest 0.4% gain while the market-cap weighted S&P 500 rose 0.7%.
Volume was a bit lighter than average at the start of this holiday week, which will see the stock market closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving and close early at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday.
Two of the S&P 500 sectors closed with modest declines while nine sectors finished higher. The information technology (+1.5%) and communication services (+1.1%) sectors led the pack thanks to strength in their respective mega cap constituents. The utilities sector (-0.3%) saw the "biggest" decline.
The energy sector was a relative underperformer, gaining 0.1% today, despite continued rebound action in WTI crude oil futures ($77.84/bbl, +1.84, +2.4%).
Treasuries mostly settled with gains following today's $16 billion 20-yr bond auction, which was met with solid demand. The 2-yr yield settled unchanged at 4.90% and the 10-yr note yield fell two basis points to 4.42% after sitting at 4.47% just ahead of the auction results.
Separately, Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS 24.86, -0.70, -2.7%) and Best Buy (BBY 68.11, -0.11, -0.2%) trailed today's action in front of their quarterly results before Tuesday's open.
- Nasdaq Composite: +36.5% YTD
- S&P 500: +18.4% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +6.1% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +4.8% YTD
- Russell 2000: +2.6% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- October Leading Indicators -0.8% (consensus -0.7%); Prior -0.7%
Tuesday's economic calendar features:
- 10:00 ET: October Existing Home Sales ( consensus 3.90 mln; prior 3.96 mln)
- 14:00 ET: November FOMC Minutes