Closing Stock Market Summary
Stocks rallied today, leading the S&P 500 (+1.2%) and Nasdaq Composite (+2.0%) to close at fresh all-time highs.
This price coincided with NVIDIA (NVDA 1224.40, +60.03, +5.2%) jumping 5% today, taking its market value over $3 trillion. It is now the most valuable stock by market cap after Microsoft (MSFT 424.01, +7.94, +1.9%). Other mega caps and chipmakers were also among the influential winners today, boosting the broader market. Meta Platforms (META 495.06, +18.07, +3.8%) and Broadcom (AVGO 1413.09, +82.27, +6.2%) were standouts in that respect.
The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) settled 1.8% higher and the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) saw a 4.5% gain.
Strength in the aforementioned areas propelled the information technology (+2.6%), communication services (+1.5%), and consumer discretionary (+0.7%) sectors toward the top of the leaderboard today.
Still, many stocks participated in today's broad advance after the market showed nice resilience to selling efforts this week. The equal-weighted S&P 500 rose 0.6% and market breadth favored advancers by a 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE.
A drop in Treasury yields again acted as support for equities today after acting as a limiting factor in recent sessions. The 10-yr note yield settled five basis points lower at 4.29% and the 2-yr note yield fell four basis points to 4.73%. This activity followed an ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for May that showed some deceleration in the Prices Index from April.
- Nasdaq Composite: +14.5% YTD
- S&P 500:+12.3% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: +6.1% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +3.0% YTD
- Russell 2000: +1.8% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index -5.2%; Prior -5.7%
- May ADP Employment Change 152K (consensus 175K); Prior was revised to 188K from 192K
- May S&P Global US Services PMI - Final 54.8; Prior 51.3
- May ISM Non-Manufacturing Index 53.8% (consensus 50.7%); Prior 49.4%
- The key takeaway from the report is that it signals a pickup in activity in the nation's largest sector with prices paid remaining elevated, albeit less so than the prior month. Altogether it is a report that doesn't command a rate cut soon.
Thursday's economic calendar features:
- 8:30 ET: Revised Q1 Productivity (consensus 0.3%; prior 0.3%), revised Q1 Unit Labor Costs (consensus 4.7%; prior 4.7%), weekly Initial Claims (consensus 216,000; prior 219,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.791 mln), and April Trade Balance (consensus -$76.5 bln; prior -$69.4 bln)
- 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior +84 bcf)