From Briefing.com: 4:05 pm : The stock market snapped its three-day winning streak, but the Thursday decline was modest in scope as the S&P 500 shed just 0.2% after climbing off its morning low.
Equity indices faced some early selling pressure as market participants were reminded about the presence of global growth concerns after the Bank of Korea unexpectedly lowered its key interest rate to 1.25% from 1.50% and China reported a 0.5% month-over-month decline in CPI (expected -0.2%).
Markets in China and Hong Kong could not respond to the weak inflation data due to holiday closures, but the commodity market appeared to take notice as copper and crude oil retreated. Copper futures fell to a four-month low, dropping 1.2% to $2.036/lb while crude oil settled lower by 1.4% at $50.53/bbl, finishing the day just above yesterday's session low.
Weakness in commodities kept energy (-0.5%) and materials (-0.6%) at the bottom of the leaderboard while other cyclical sectors also struggled. Financials (-0.8%) spent the entire session behind the other nine groups while technology (-0.1%) and industrials (unch) rebounded during afternoon action to end little changed.
The top-weighted tech sector was underpinned by a 0.7% gain in the shares of Apple (AAPL 99.65, +0.71) while industrials settled ahead of the broader market thanks to relative strength in airlines and logistics names. American Airlines (AAL 33.40, +0.89) climbed 2.7%, but the broader Dow Jones Transportation Average still finished lower by 0.2%.
Another influential sector, health care (-0.2%), showed some early strength, but could not stay in positive territory as biotechnology weighed. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 273.58, -4.95) lost 1.8%. Meanwhile, other countercyclical groups had a better showing with consumer staples (+0.4%), telecom services (+0.6%), and utilities (+0.9%) posting gains.
The consumer staples sector was boosted by J.M. Smucker (SJM 143.22, +10.51), which soared 7.9% in reaction to better than expected results. The defensively-oriented group extended its 2016 gain to 6.6% while utilities pushed their 2016 advance to 16.3%.
Treasuries finished the day near their highs despite the intraday rebound in equities with the 10-yr yield sliding two basis points to 1.68%. On a related note, demand for Germany's 10-yr bund pressured its yield to a record low of 0.026% before ending flat at 0.037%.
Today's participation was below average as fewer than 800 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Economic data included Initial Claims and Wholesale Inventories:
Initial claims for the week ending June 4 were 264,000 (Briefing.com consensus 265,000), a decrease of 4,000 from the prior week
There were no special factors influencing the initial claims reading, which remained below 300,000 for the 66th straight week
The four-week moving average for initial claims dropped to 269,500 from 277,000
Continuing claims for the week ending May 28 decreased by 77,000 to 2.095 million. That is the lowest level of continuing claims since October 21, 2000, lowering the four-week moving average for this series to 2.145 million from 2.163 million
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% in April (Briefing.com consensus +0.1%) after increasing an upwardly revised 0.2% (from 0.1%) in March
The increase in April was fueled by a 1.3% increase in nondurable inventories, which was powered by a 2.2% increase in drug inventories and a 7.5% jump in farm products inventories
Wholesale sales increased 1.0% following a downwardly revised 0.6% increase (from 0.7%) in March
The wholesale inventories to sales ratio dipped to 1.35 from 1.36, but was up from 1.31 in the same period a year ago
Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment Index for June (Briefing.com consensus 94.0) and the May Treasury Budget. The two reports will be released at 10:00 ET and 14:00 ET, respectively.
Russell 2000 +4.6% YTD
S&P 500 +3.5% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +3.2% YTD
Nasdaq Composite -1.0% YTD
DJ30 -19.86 NASDAQ -16.03 SP500 -3.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 895/1.49 bln/2052 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1151/790.3 mln/1863
3:30 pm :
The dollar index holds onto this mornings gains, currently up +0.4% around the 93.97 level, weighing on certain commodities overall
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, are down -0.7% at 89.88
Crude oil gives up the majority of yesterday's gains, consolidating & closing just off of its highs of 2016 reached in the previous session
July crude oil futures fell $0.70 (-1.4%) to $50.53/barrel
IEA monthly data is scheduled to be released June 14
Natural gas surges following EIA storage data that showed a smaller-than-expected build compared to estimates
July natural gas closed $0.15 higher (+6.1%) at $2.62/MMBtu
July natural gas futures were trading around $2.46/MMBtu right before the release of the data
Natural gas inventory showed a build of +65 bcf vs expectations for inventory to be a build of approximately +77 bcf.
Working gas in storage was 2,972 Bcf as of Friday, June 3, 2016, according to EIA estimates.
Stocks were 660 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 722 Bcf above the five-year average of 2,250 Bcf.
At 2,972 Bcf, total working gas is above the five-year historical range.
In precious metals, gold ends near its highs of the day even as the dollar holds onto its early morning gains
August gold ended today's session up $10.30 (+0.8%) to $1272.50/oz
Silver extends yesterday's notable +3.7% gains, closing higher despite strength in the dollar
July silver closed today's session $0.27 higher (+1.6%) at $17.27/oz
Base metal copper stages a modest afternoon rally after an overnight plummet, still closing lower for the day
July copper closed $0.02 lower (-1.0%) at $2.04/lb
4:30 pm Applied Materials announces new $2 bln share repurchase program (AMAT) :
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