Closing Stock Market Summary
The major indices closed either slightly above or slightly below yesterday's closing levels. The market-cap weighted S&P 500 closed about one point lower and the equal-weighted S&P 500 logged a 0.2% decline.
There was not a lot of conviction today following fresh all-time closing highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday, and in front of Friday's release of the May Employment Report. The market continues to show nice resilience to selling efforts, though, which has acted as an upside driver in recent sessions.
Some stocks exhibited larger moves on specific catalysts. lululemon athletica (LULU 323.03, +14.76, +4.8%) and J.M. Smucker (SJM 115.37, +5.04, +4.6%) were standouts in that respect, jumping on pleasing earnings and/or guidance.
LULU and SJM were among the top performing S&P 500 components and contributed to the outperformance of their respective sectors. The consumer discretionary sector jumped 1.0% and the consumer staples sector logged a 0.4% gain.
NVIDIA (NVDA 1210.45, -13.95, -1.1%) dropped under some profit-taking pressure after its record close yesterday. This loss, along with declines in Apple (AAPL 194.50, -1.37, -0.7%), Broadcom (AVGO 1400.74, -12.34, -0.9%), and other semiconductor-related names, contributed to the weakness in the information technology sector (-0.5%).
Treasury yields settled little changed from yesterday following some volatile action in response to the first rate cut by the ECB since September 2019 and a mixed batch of economic data that included higher-than-expected initial jobless claims, a soothing downward revision to Q1 unit labor costs, and a widening in the April trade deficit.
The 10-yr note yield settle one basis point lower at 4.28% and the 2-yr note yield fell one basis point to 4.72%.
- Nasdaq Composite: +14.4% YTD
- S&P 500:+12.2% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +5.8% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +3.2% YTD
- Russell 2000: +1.1% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Weekly Initial Claims 229K (consensus 216K); Prior was revised to 221K from 219K; Weekly Continuing Claims 1.792 mln; Prior was revised to 1.790 mln from 1.791 mln
- The key takeaway from the report is the uptick in initial jobless claims, which will be seen as a sign of some loosening in the labor market.
- Q1 Productivity-Rev. 0.2% (consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.3%; Q1 Unit Labor Costs-Rev. 4.0% (consensus 4.7%); Prior 4.7%
- The key takeaway from the report is the downward revision to unit labor costs. Although a backward-looking report (we're two-thirds done with Q2), that revision will take out some of the labor cost inflation sting seen in the advance report.
- April Trade Balance -$74.6 bln (consensus -$76.5 bln); Prior was revised to -$68.6 bln from -$69.4 bln
- The key takeaway from the report is that there was an uptick in both exports and imports in April, which is a reflection of increased global trade activity; however, with imports exceeding exports, that will create a drag on Q2 GDP.
Looking ahead, Friday's economic calendar features:
- 8:30 ET: May Nonfarm Payrolls (consensus 185,000; prior 175,000), Nonfarm Private Payrolls (consensus 168,000; prior 167,000), Average Hourly Earnings (consensus 0.3%; prior 0.2%), Unemployment Rate (Briefing.com consensus 3.9%; prior 3.9%), and Average Workweek consensus 34.3; prior 34.3)
- 10:00 ET: April Wholesale Inventories (consensus 0.2%; prior -0.4%)
- 15:00 ET: April Consumer Credit (consensus $11.0 bln; prior $6.3 bln)