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Traders Hold Their Ground Despite Risk-Off Tone
07-Sep-17 16:30 ET
Dow -22.86 at 21786.08, Nasdaq +4.55 at 6397.84, S&P -0.44 at 2466.55
https://www.briefing.com/investor/markets/stock-market-update/2017/9/7/traders-hold-their-ground-despite-riskoff-tone.htm

[BRIEFING.COM] The major U.S. indices had a mixed outing on Thursday, settling near their unchanged marks despite another disappointing performance from the heavily-weighted financial sector (-1.7%) and risk-off signals from other financial markets. The Nasdaq (+0.1%) eked out a narrow victory while the Dow (-0.1%) and the S&P 500 (unch) each finished a tick below their flat lines.

Prior to Thursday's opening bell, the European Central Bank announced its decision to leave interest rates unchanged. ECB President Mario Draghi added that the central bank will make a decision on its quantitative easing program later this year and risks to the outlook remain balanced. He also noted that the ECB is not targeting an exchange rate, but the level will factor into policy decisions.

The euro climbed 0.9% against the U.S. dollar to 1.2025 following Mr. Draghi's remarks, helping to send the U.S. Dollar Index (91.48, -0.73, -0.8%) to its lowest level since January 2015. The Japanese yen also weighed on the greenback, climbing 0.7% to 108.45. The yen is considered a safe-haven asset and typically does well when investors are feeling risk averse.

Other safe-haven assets, like U.S. Treasuries and gold, also did well on Thursday. Gold climbed 0.9% to $1,350.40/ozt, settling at a new high for the year, while the Treasury market rallied in a curve-flattening trade that sent the 2-yr yield (1.27%) and the 10-yr yield (2.06%) lower by two basis points and five basis points, respectively.

The flattening of the yield curve fueled concerns about net interest margins for lenders and contributed to another poor performance for the heavily-weighted financial sector, which dropped 1.7% to finish below its 200 day simple moving average (397.68). Property and casualty insurers also weighed on the financial group as Hurricane Irma creeped closer to the populous state of Florida.

Like financials, the consumer discretionary and telecom services spaces finished solidly lower, dropping 0.9% and 2.1%, respectively, but the eight remaining sectors finished in positive territory with gains ranging from 0.1% to 1.1%. The influential health care and information technology sectors finished comfortably ahead of the broader market, adding 1.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

On the corporate front, Walt Disney (DIS 97.06, -4.44) dropped 4.4% after CEO Bob Iger announced that the company's earnings per share for fiscal year 2017 will be roughly in line with the 2016 figure. In addition, the company said that its Marvel and Star Wars titles will go exclusively to its planned streaming service, which is set to launch in late 2019.

General Electric (GE 24.02, -0.90) also finished solidly lower, losing 3.6%, after JP Morgan reaffirmed its underweight rating on GE shares. However, on a positive note, Restoration Hardware (RH 71.54, +22.12) surged 44.8% after beating both top and bottom line estimates and issuing upbeat guidance.

In Washington, the Senate easily passed President Trump's Wednesday agreement with Democratic lawmakers, which packages Hurricane Harvey relief funding with a three-month extension of both government funding and the debt ceiling. The measure will now be taken up in the House, where it is also expected to pass.

Reviewing Thursday's economic data, which included the weekly Initial Claims Report and revised readings for second quarter Productivity and Unit Labor Costs:

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 298,000 while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 239,000. Today's tally was above the unrevised prior week count of 236,000. As for continuing claims, they declined to 1.940 million from the revised count of 1.945 million (from 1.942 million).
The key takeaway from the report is that the spike in initial claims was impacted by Hurricane Harvey, which is to say it is an aberrant reading in relation to an otherwise encouraging trend for initial claims.
Second quarter unit labor costs were revised downward to +0.2% (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%) from +0.6% in the preliminary reading. Meanwhile, second quarter productivity was revised upward to +1.5% (Briefing.com consensus +1.2%) from +0.9% in the preliminary reading.
The key takeaway from the report is that the subdued growth in unit labor costs will contribute to the market's thinking that the Fed has scope to hold off on another rate hike this year.

On Friday, investors will receive just two pieces of economic data--July Wholesale Inventories (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) and July Consumer Credit (Briefing.com consensus $15.0 billion). The two reports will be released at 10:00 ET and 15:00 ET, respectively.

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