From Briefing.com: 4:22 pm Closing Market Summary: Stocks Open the Week Unscathed (:WRAPX) :
Last week's health care hiccup fostered some bearish undertones on Monday morning, but investors were largely able to shake off the concerns to start the week unscathed. The Nasdaq settled 0.2% higher while the S&P 500 and the Dow finished with losses of 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.
With health care reform in the rear-view mirror, lawmakers will now turn their attention to a major catalyst in the stock market's post-election rally--tax reform. However, tax reform may prove to be challenging for the GOP as House Republicans appear to be divided on the key issue of a border adjustment tax. For instance, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows is opposed to the idea of a penalty at the border while House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady believes it to be "a given" with any tax reform legislation.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a tax reform package is expected in August.
At the top of the day's sector standings was the health care space (+0.4%) as the demise of the American Health Care Act puts President Trump's pledge to lower drug prices into question. Biotech names saw relative strength on Monday, evidenced by the 1.1% increase in the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 293.14, +3.08).
The technology (+0.1%), materials (+0.3%), and consumer discretionary (unch) groups also settled in positive territory. Large-cap tech names like Apple (AAPL 140.88, +0.24), Microsoft (MSFT 65.10, +0.12), Alphabet (GOOGL 838.51, +3.37), and Intel (INTC 35.39, +0.23) underpinned the top-weighted tech group's outperformance.
It's worth noting that today's uptick extends Apple's year-to-date gain to 21.6%. The tech giant has seemingly acted as a safe haven for investors looking for a place to park their money amid the stock market's recent sideways trend.
On the flip side, the lightly-weighted real estate (-0.6%) and telecom services (-0.7%) sectors settled at the bottom of the day's leaderboard while the remaining groups--financials, industrials, energy, consumer staples, and utilities--finished with losses between 0.1% and 0.5%.
In the Treasury market, U.S. sovereign debt settled in positive territory in a curve-flattening trade. The 10-yr yield (2.37%) finished four basis points lower while the 2-yr yield (1.25%) closed only one basis point below its unchanged mark.
Meanwhile, in the currency market, the U.S. Dollar Index (99.03, -0.56) finished lower by 0.6%.
Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday. A handful of reports will be released on Tuesday, including February Advanced International Trade in Goods (Briefing.com consensus -$66.1 billion) and Advanced Wholesale Inventories (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) at 8:30 ET, January S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (Briefing.com consensus 5.6%) at 9:00 ET, and March Consumer Confidence (Briefing.com consensus 113.3) at 10:00 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +8.5% YTD
S&P 500 +4.6% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +4.0% YTD
Russell 2000 UNCH YTD
Despite opening the session with some hefty losses, the broader market pared its declines to end mixed but mostly flat on Monday. The lone outperformer, the Nasdaq Composite, added 11.64 points (+0.20%) today to 5840.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the worst performer, shedding 45.74 (-0.22%) to 20550.98, while the S&P 500 lost 2.39 points (-0.10%) to 2341.59.
For all the up and down during Monday's session, it all appeared to be for naught in the end as the Technology (XLK 52.84, flat) space closed flat despite opening with losses. Component Micron (MU 28.76, +0.33 +1.16%) was the strongest performer today, behind a tender offer for certain of the company's Senior Notes. As finished the broader market, so finished the 11 S&P sectors with Healthcare leading the positive action XLV +0.27% followed by XLB +0.21%, XLY -0.03%, XLP -0.09%, XLI -0.36%, XLF -0.38%, XLU -0.39%, XLE -0.47%, XLRE -0.80%, IYZ -1.12%.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (897.53, +0.92 +0.10%) space, trading barely escaped Monday's action with gains given early pressure did not hold. Components QRVO +1.08%, NVDA +0.73%, INTC +0.65%, GOOG +0.62%, CTXS +0.52% WDC +0.50%, ADBE +0.43%, ORCL +0.43%, GOOGL +0.40%, MSI +0.39% were among those that aided the modest advance.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Moneygram (MGI 16.75, +0.09 +0.54%) entered into a confidentiality agreement with Euronet Worldwide (EEFT 83.81, +0.27 +0.32%) to further consider Euronet's unsolicited proposal for $15.20 per share.
The US Supreme Court will not hear $7.25 billion antitrust settlement case against Visa (V 88.92, -0.27 -0.30%) and Mastercard (MA 111.94, -0.04 -0.04%) concerning fees, according to reports.
Micron (MU) commenced tender offers to purchase certain senior notes for cash in the maximum aggregate principal amount that will not result in an Aggregate Purchase Price that exceeds $1,000,000,000.
DST Systems (DST 117.90, +3.74 +3.28%) to acquire State Street's (STT 78.13, +0.92 +1.19%) ownership interest in the Boston Financial Data Services JV and International Financial Data Services JV.
ComScore (SCOR 21.75, +0.39 +1.83%) filed to delay its 10-K.
Analyst actions:
ADBE was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BTIG Research,
ANET was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman,
MDRX was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo,
HIMX was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley;
SWIR was downgraded to Mkt Perform at Raymond James;
SNAP was initiated at Jefferies, Citigroup, RBC Capital Mkts, Stifel, Credit Suisse, JMP Securities, Summit Redstone, Oppenheimer, UBS, JP Morgan, BofA/Merrill, Morgan Stanley, Goldman, William Blair, Cowen and Deutsche Bank,
PAY was initiated with a Buy at Tigress Financial,
SYNC was initiated with a Buy at Craig Hallum,
GRPN and WIX were initiated with a Neutral at Citigroup
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