Closing Market Summary: Holiday-Shortened Week Starts on Lower Note
The S&P 500 began the holiday-shortened week on a lower note, shedding 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq outperformed, but their gains were limited to less than 0.1% apiece. Stocks held modest gains through the vast majority of the session, but a final-hour sell off sent the S&P 500 to a fresh low. Despite today's retreat, the benchmark index remains higher by 2.6% in November.
Energy (-0.8%) and materials (-0.7%) led the afternoon sell off after laggingthroughout the session. The energy sector was pressured by crude oil futures,which fell 0.8% to $94.03 per barrel. Oil futures were able to erase a portionof their losses after being down as much as 1.1% in reaction to the nuclear deal with Iran that was reached over the weekend. Meanwhile, steelmakers weighed on the materials sector as the Market Vectors Steel ETF (SLX 47.80, -0.47) lost 1.0%. Elsewhere, industrials (-0.4%) joined the final-hour sell off as Boeing (BA 133.00, -2.97) fell 2.2% amid news the company has warned airlines about a potential engine icing risk. The engine maker, General Electric (GE 26.73, -0.35), lost 1.3%. However, there were some pockets of strength among industrials as the Dow Jones Transportation Average outperformed with a gain of 0.3%.
The afternoon weakness also claimed three countercyclical groups—consumer staples (-0.2%), telecom services (-0.3%), and utilities (-0.4%)—while health care outperformed with a gain of 0.4%. Biotechnology was largely responsible for the relative strength as the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 222.79,+2.16) added 1.0%. Outside of health care, only consumer discretionary (+0.1%) and financials (+0.1%) eked out narrow gains. Treasuries ended modestly higher with the 10-yr yield off one basis point at 2.74%. Trading volume was well below average as just over 620 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Today's economic data was limited to October pending home sales, which ticked down 0.6%. The reading followed last month's revised decrease of 4.6% (from 5.6%), and was worse than the 1.3% increase forecast by the consensus. Tomorrow, building permits for September and October will be reported at 8:30 ET while the September Case-Shiller 20-city Index and September FHFA Housing Price Index will be released at 9:00 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the November Consumer Confidence Index.
o Russell 2000 +32.4% YTD o Nasdaq +32.3% YTD o S&P 500 +26.4% YTD o DJIA +22.7% YTD