From Briefing.com: 4:10 pm : Monday's session ended roughly where it began as investors opted to play it safe, leaving the major averages just below their all-time highs. The Dow (-0.1%) and the Nasdaq (-0.1%) closed just ahead of the S&P 500 (-0.2%), while the small-cap Russell 2000 (-0.8%) underperformed.
An uptick in the Treasury market pointed to a risk-off sentiment among investors. The benchmark 10-yr yield closed five basis points lower at 2.41% as the Trump administration's timing of corporate tax reform and increased infrastructure spending, two factors that fueled the post-election rally, remains unclear.
On the earnings front, Tyson Foods (TSN 63.13, -2.26), Sysco (SYY 51.20, -1.34), Newell Brands (NWL 44.23, -2.66), and Hasbro (HAS 94.31, +11.68) all reported quarterly results before Monday's opening bell. Hasbro spiked 14.1%, while Tyson Foods, Sysco, and Newell Brands lost between 2.6% and 5.7%. However, the results had a limited impact on the broader market as the consumer discretionary (-0.3%) and consumer staples (-0.4%) sectors finished in line with the benchmark index.
The top-weighted information technology sector (+0.1%) closed ahead of its peers, underpinned by the strength of its largest component, Apple (AAPL 130.34, +1.26). Chipmakers also had a hand in limiting the bearish influence, pushing the PHLX Semiconductor Index higher by 0.4%. The industrial space (+0.1%) was the only other sector to finish in the green.
At the opposite end of the leaderboard was the energy space (-0.9%) amid a poor performance from crude oil. The energy component finished 1.5% lower at $53.01/bbl following Friday's Baker Hughes data, which showed U.S. oil rig additions in 13 of the past 14 weeks. Intraday dollar strength may have acted as an additional headwind for the commodity.
The U.S. Dollar Index (99.81, +0.12) finished Monday with a modest 0.1% gain after being up as much as 0.5%. Most of the greenback's gains came against the euro (1.0755) after far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen vowed to take her country out of the eurozone.
The remaining sectors--financials, materials, health care, utilities, telecom services, and real estate--finished the day with losses between 0.1% and 0.8%.
Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday.
Tomorrow's economic data will include December Trade Balance (Briefing.com consensus -$45.0 billion) at 8:30 am ET, December Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey at 10:00 am ET, and Consumer Credit (Briefing.com consensus $19.4 billion) at 3:00 pm ET.
Nasdaq Composite +5.2% YTD
S&P 500 +2.4% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.5% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.7% YTD
DJ30 -19.04 NASDAQ -3.21 SP500 -4.86 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1049/1.57 bln/1813 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1116/935.5 mln/1810
3:30 pm :
In precious metals, gold ended pit trading at a fresh 3-month high as the dollar index gave up initial morning gains
April gold ended today's session up $11.70 (+1.0%) to $1232.30/oz
March silver closed today's session $0.21 higher (+1.2%) at $17.70/oz
Natural gas broke out of a 3-session uptrend, hovered just above the $3.00/MMBtu support zone; EIA on tap Thursday
Mar natural gas closed $0.01 lower (-0.3%) at $3.05/MMBtu
EIA natural gas data will be released Thursday at 10:30 am ET
Crude oil ended pit trading at its lowest level of the session on the heels of Friday's Baker Hughes data which showed US oil rigs were added for 13 out of the past 14 weeks
Mar crude oil futures fell $0.80 (-1.5%) to $53.01/barrel
Data reminders:
API petroleum data will be released tomorrow at 4:30 pm ET
EIA petroleum data will be released Wednesday at 10:30 am ET
Baker Hughes rig count data will be released Friday at 1 pm ET
The dollar index was nearly flat around the 99.88 level
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, were -0.1% around the 87.83 level
The broader market began the week on a modestly lower trajectory. That's not to say there weren't some positive ticks in today's affair, a the Dow Jones spent a portion of the mid-morning above flat lines. The Nasdaq Composite also enjoyed a few brief moments above Friday's close, but ultimately all three major US indices closed in the red. The S&P 500 was the worst performer today, shedding 4.86 points (-0.21%) to 2292.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 19.04 points (-0.09%) to 20052.42, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 3.21 points (-0.06%) when the bell rang to 5663.55.
Displaying modest strength, the Technology (XLK 50.72, +0.03 +0.06%) space finished just ahead of flat lines despite carrying losses into the final moments of the close. Component NVIDIA (NVDA 117.31, +2.93 +2.56%) was higher after announcing its latest lineup of GPUs. Other sectors as measured by the S&P closed the session XLI +0.13%, XLV +0.11%, XLU -0.20%, XLB -0.27%, XLY -0.30%, XLF -0.46%, XLP -0.53%, XLRE -0.61%, XLE -0.84%, IYZ -1.74%.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (856.55, +1.20 +0.14%) sector, trading also managed modest gains into the close. Bellwethers like YHOO +1.6%, AAPL +0.9%, FB +0.8%, GOOGL +0.2% all aided the advance.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Alphabet (GOOG 801.34, -0.15 -0.02%) to sell Terra Bella to Planet Labs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Qualcomm's (QCOM 52.88, -0.10 -0.19%) Qualcomm River Holdings B.V. has extended the offering period of its previously announced cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding common shares of NXP
Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI 100.05, +0.59 +0.59%). The tender offer is now scheduled to expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 7, 2017, unless extended or earlier terminated, in either case pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement.
Disguise, Inc., the Halloween costume division of leading toy manufacturer, JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (JAKK 5.25, +0.15 +2.94%), has secured a worldwide licensing agreement with Mojang and Microsoft (MSFT 63.64, -0.04 -0.06%) to create children's Halloween costumes, Halloween accessories and everyday dress up based on Minecraft.
AudioCodes (AUDC +6.71, +0.35 +5.50%) signed an outbound license and distribution agreement with
Microsoft (MSFT) for Microsoft Cloud Connector Edition.
NVIDIA (NVDA) introduced some new Quadro products, all based on its Pascal architecture, that transform desktop workstations into supercomputers with breakthrough capabilities for professional workflows across many industries. The new GPUs include Quadro Pascal-based GPU models GP100, P4000, P2000, P1000, P600 and P400.
JetPay (JTPY 2.55, +0.05 +2.00%) entered into an agreement with the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer to become the payment processor for the State's E-Pay program. The agreement, which was awarded to the Company through its participation in a Request for Proposal process, is for an initial term of six years with four one-year renewal options. Revenues under the agreement are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Aerohive Networks (HIVE 5.12, -0.12 -2.29%) CFO John Ritchie assumed additional responsibilities as COO effective February 1.
Harris (HRS 105.13, +0.83 +0.80%) entered into a fixed dollar accelerated share repurchase transaction agreement with Morgan Stanley to repurchase shares of the Company's common stock for an initial payment of $350 million, as part of the common stock repurchase program.
Genpact (G 25.05, +0.03 +0.12%) acquired assets of Fiserv's (FISV 106.85, +0.13 +0.12%) Australia-based Item Processing Business. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
SeaChange (SEAC 2.47, +0.03 +1.23%) to implement cost-savings actions. Also, the company has appointed Jonathan Rider as COO effective January 31, 2017.
SunPower (SPWR 6.99, -0.01 -0.14%) was awarded a $96,252,862 Defense Logistics Agency contract.
Ebix (EBIX 56.95, +0.25 +0.44%) announced a new $150 million share repurchase plan.
Analyst actions:
MSI was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Gabelli & Co.,
CHU and CHA were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS,
GLUU was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Roth Capital,
TRUE was upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Mkts;
NVDA was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Roth Capital,
HIVE was downgraded to Mkt Perform from Mkt Outperform at JMP Securities,
LPL was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley,
HIMX was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley,
AUO was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at KGI Securities;
CUDA was initiated with a Buy at Needham,
QUIK was initiated with a Buy at Craig Hallum
