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Investors Cautious Ahead of Jackson Hole Speeches
24-Aug-17 16:30 ET
Dow -28.69 at 21783.40, Nasdaq -7.08 at 6271.31, S&P -3.72 at 2440.28
https://www.briefing.com/investor/markets/stock-market-update/2017/8/24/investors-cautious-ahead-of-jackson-hole-speeches.htm

[BRIEFING.COM] Equities ticked lower in a range-bound trade on Thursday as central bankers kicked off a three-day symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Dow (-0.1%) and the Nasdaq (-0.1%) settled roughly in line with the benchmark S&P 500, which dropped 0.2%.

Investors hesitated to move the market ahead of comments from the world's two most influential central bankers--Fed Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. The two will speak on Friday at 10:00 ET and 15:00 ET, respectively.

Lingering concerns over a potential government shutdown also held sentiment in check on Thursday, but House Speaker Paul Ryan helped ease those concerns a bit, saying he is confident that the debt ceiling will be raised before it hits the limit.

Ten of the eleven sectors finished Thursday's session in negative territory, but losses were pretty modest in general. The consumer staples space (-1.3%) exhibited notable weakness, but the remaining laggards finished with losses of no more than 0.4%. The health care group (+0.3%) was the lone advancer.

Grocers like Wal-Mart (WMT 78.34, -1.62), Costco (COST 151.33, -8.04), and Kroger (KR 21.10, -1.86) weighed on the consumer staples group, dropping 2.0%, 5.0%, and 8.1%, respectively, following news that Amazon's (AMZN 952.45, -5.55) acquisition of Whole Foods Market (WFM 41.98, +0.30) will close on Monday.

In addition, J.M. Smucker (SJM 107.51, -11.34) and Hormel Foods (HRL 32.09, -1.83) also influenced the consumer staples group lower, losing 9.5% and 5.4%, respectively, after missing both top and bottom line estimates

Elsewhere on the corporate front, retailers were a focal point following another large batch of retail earnings. The reactions were largely positive, evidenced by the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 38.84, +0.35), which moved higher by 0.9%.

Dollar Tree (DLTR 78.50, +4.18), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 11.25, +1.64), Guess? (GES 14.86, +2.38), Signet Jewelers (SIG 60.54, +8.65), Michaels Stores (MIK 21.27, +1.66), and Burlington Stores (BURL 86.11, +1.16) added between 1.4% and 19.1% after all six companies beat earnings estimates.

In the bond market, U.S. Treasuries moved lower across the curve, sending the benchmark 10-yr yield two basis points higher to 2.19%. The 2-yr yield also climbed two basis points, finishing at 1.33%.

Reviewing Thursday's economic data, which included the weekly Initial Claims Report and July Existing Home Sales:

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 234,000 while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 237,000. Today's tally was above the unrevised prior week count of 232,000. As for continuing claims, they stayed unchanged at 1.954 million from the revised count of 1.954 million (from 1.953 million).
The report marked the 129th straight week initial claims have been below 300,000, which is reflective of a tight labor market.
Existing home sales for July decreased 1.3% from June to an annualized rate of 5.44 million units while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 5.56 million. The prior month's reading was revised to 5.51 million from 5.52 million.
The key takeaway from the report is that neither the availability nor the affordability of homes is high, which is keeping sales activity from being all that it could be otherwise.

On Friday, investors will receive just one piece of economic data--July Durable Orders (Briefing.com consensus -6.0%). The report will cross the wires at 8:30 ET.