Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's positive price action was driven by a sense of relief that the Israel-Hamas war did not turn into a wider conflict over the weekend when the market was closed. The tone could quickly shift on any given headline, however, but for today, the market's focus appeared to be more on what did not happen as opposed to something bad happening.
The relief trade manifested itself in rising stock prices, rising Treasury yields, and declining oil prices ($86.62/bbl, -1.18, -1.3%). The positive bias was also helped in part by the People's Bank of China making its largest liquidity injection since 2020 to help boost growth there, and the hope that the third quarter earnings reporting period, which will accelerate this week, will be better than expected.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed off their best levels of the session after the former ran into some resistance on a retest of early session highs around 4,380. After doing so, the market traded in a tightly contested range for the bulk of today's session.
Gains for the major indices ranged from 0.9% to 1.6%. Many stocks participated in the upside moves amid fairly indiscriminate buying interest.
The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) climbed 1.1%; the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) rose 1.3%; the Russell 3000 Value Index was up 1.1%; and the Russell 3000 Growth Index closed up 1.2%. Apple (AAPL 178.72, -0.13, -0.1%) was a notable laggard after Bloomberg reported that the iPhone 15 had a disappointing start to sales in China.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors closed in the green. Eight sectors jumped at least 1.0%, led by consumer discretionary (+1.7%) and communication services (+1.5%). The energy sector (+0.7%) saw the slimmest gain amid falling oil prices. The move in oil was also connected to a Washington Post report that the U.S. is aiming to ease sanctions on oil from Venezuela
The 2-yr note yield rose four basis points to 5.09% and the 10-yr note yield rose eight basis points to 4.71%, reflecting some of the safety premium being unwound.
- Nasdaq Composite: +29.6% YTD
- S&P 500: +13.9% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +2.5% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +2.1% YTD
- Russell 2000: -0.8% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- The Empire State Manufacturing index fell to -4.6 in October ( consensus -4.0%) from 1.9 in September.
Tuesday's economic calendar features:
- 8:30 ET: September Retail Sales (consensus 0.3%; prior 0.6%) and Retail Sales ex-auto ( consensus 0.2%; prior 0.6%)
- 9:15 ET: September Industrial Production (consensus 0.0%; prior 0.4%) and Capacity Utilization (consensus 79.5%; prior 79.7%)
- 10:00 ET: August Business Inventories ( consensus 0.3%; prior 0.0%) and October NAHB Housing Market Index ( consensus 45; prior 45)
- 16:00 ET: August net Long-Term TIC Flows (prior $8.8 bln)