From Briefing.com: 4:21 pm Closing Market Summary: Stocks Survive Afternoon Retreat to Close Thursday Higher (:WRAPX) :
The major averages registered modest gains on Thursday, keeping the S&P 500 (+0.2%) several points above its 50-day moving average (2346). The benchmark index settled near the middle of the day's range while the Nasdaq and Dow added 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively. Also of note, the domestically-oriented Russell 2000 bounced back from its disappointing performance yesterday to settled higher by 0.9%.
Stocks pushed into positive territory early in the morning session, where they comfortably remained until the afternoon. Then, without warning, equities gave back nearly all of their modest gains in an early-afternoon move towards their flat lines. There was no clear catalyst behind the sudden move, but it is clear that comments from President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson didn't do anything to alleviate the bearish sentiment.
Mr. Trump said the United States is prepared to act alone on North Korea if China is not willing to assist. In addition, the president and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that something needs to be done about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Recalling that investors were already a little antsy ahead of President Trump's two-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the comments added to the underlying anxiety.
The leaders of the world's two largest economies will have the opportunity to clear the air over the next couple of days, kicking off their two-day talks with dinner this evening in Palm Beach, FL. Investors will be keeping a close eye on reports from the discussions, hoping for a positive signal to keep the bears at bay.
In terms of sector standings, cyclical groups had the upper hand on their countercyclical peers throughout the day's action. The energy group (+0.8%) acted as a pillar of strength in the cash market with crude oil underpinning the positive performance. The commodity closed the day 1.1% higher at $51.71/bbl, marking its seventh advance in eight sessions.
Retailers provided the consumer discretionary sector (+0.4%) with some strength, evidenced by the 2.0% increase in the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 41.65, +0.83). The positive sentiment was attributed to several companies reporting better than expected same-store sales for the month of March.
Conversely, the technology sector (-0.1%) was the only cyclical group to settle in the red after a lackluster performance from some of its top components like Apple (AAPL 143.66, -0.36), Alphabet (GOOGL 845.10, -3.82), and Facebook (FB 141.17, -0.68). Similarly, most countercyclical sectors finished in negative territory with the telecom services group (-1.6%) closing at the bottom of the day's leaderboard.
In the Treasury market, Treasuries settled just below their unchanged marks with the benchmark 10-yr yield closing one basis point higher at 2.34%. Today's downtick follows yesterday's counter-intuitive move which left U.S. sovereign debt higher despite the FOMC Minutes showing that the Fed plans to start unwinding its balance sheet later in the year.
On the data front, investors only received one notable economic report--Initial Claims--in today's session:
The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 234,000 while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 245,000. Today's tally was below the revised prior week count of 259,000 (from 258,000). As for continuing claims, they declined to 2.028 million from the unrevised count of 2.052 million.
This data won't affect the outlook for the March Employment Situation Report, yet it continues to be reflective of an improving labor market.
Tomorrow, investors will receive the March Employment Situation Report (Briefing.com consensus 180,000) at 8:30 ET, February Wholesale Inventories (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) at 10:00 ET, and February Consumer Credit (Briefing.com consensus $14.0 billion) at 15:00 ET.
Nasdaq Composite +9.2% YTD
S&P 500 +5.3% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average +4.6% YTD
Russell 2000 +0.5% YTD
4:45 pm VOXX Intl to acquire all inventory and intellectual property, including patents and trademarks of Rosen Electronics products (VOXX) : During the next two weeks, VOXX will be moving all operations from AAMP's Ontario, CA warehouse to VOXX's facilities in Nevada, Virginia and Orlando. Integrating the Rosen products into these three touch points will provide the Rosen customers with a high level of confidence in expedited deliveries to all reaches of the country.
4:41 pm NeoPhotonics CFO Ray Wallin will resign effective May 15 and remain as a consultant for a three-month transition period; Company has retained an executive search firm to identify a successor CFO (NPTN) :
Thursday's session mostly carried a positive bias, as the markets returned to their winning ways after yesterday's losses. In all, the Nasdaq Composite was the best performer adding 14.47 points (+0.25%) to 5878.95. The S&P 500 ended up 4.54 points (+0.19%) to 2357.49, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14.80 points (+0.07%) to 20662.95.
Today's lone piece of economic data was the latest weekly initial jobless claims count which totaled 234,000, below the revised prior week count of 259,000 (from 258,000). As for continuing claims, they declined to 2.028 million from the unrevised count of 2.052 million.
A soft session in the Technology (XLK 53.09, +0.01 +0.02%) space saw the sector end Thursday scarcely above yesterday's close. On a day when some big Telecom (IYZ 33.11, +0.12 +0.36%) names were pressured, component AT&T (T 40.60, -0.42 -1.02%) saw the worst losses with other notables including FTR -0.94%, TDS -0.68%, TMUS -0.41%, CBB -0.29%, S -0.24%. Ten out of the 11 S&P sectors ended Thursday either flat or in the green, led by the Energy space XLE +0.83%, followed by XLF +0.64%, XLRE +0.57%, XLB +0.53%, IYZ +0.36%, XLY +0.32%, XLI +0.28%, XLV +0.18%, XLP +0.00%, XLU -0.19%.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (901.54, -0.41 -0.05%) space, trading could not make it back into positive territory as the session came to an end. Component Western Digital (WDC 84.09, +1.39 +1.68%) was the best performer after announcing the portable My Passport SSD. Other names in the space which outperformed today included INTU +1.38%, MU +1.27%, ADS +1.24%, EBAY +1.04%, FLIR +1.02%, QRVO +1.01%, SYMC +0.92%, LRCX +0.85%, NVDA +0.71%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Synacor (SYNC 3.50, -0.65 -15.66%) priced an underwritten public offering of 5,715,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $3.50 per share.
Western Digital (WDC) introduced its fastest WD brand portable drive yet, the My Passport SSD.
GoPro (GPRO 8.51, +0.08 +0.95%) to offer $150 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2022 in a private placement.
Twitter (TWTR 14.39, -0.14 -0.96%) shares were slightly pressured today following media coverage of co-founder Evan Williams' sale of TWTR stock. Last night after the close, Williams filed a Form 4 with the SEC detailing the sale of just over 273,000 shares - the sale of said shares were 'effected pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by the Reporting Person.'
First Solar (FSLR 26.61, +0.03 +0.13%) said it is reviewing alternatives for the sale of its interests in 8point3 Energy Partners (CAFD 12.16, -1.05 -7.95%). CAFD also reported Q1 results, and the company reaffirmed its 2017 guidance.
Mobileye N.V. (MBLY 61.74, +0.44 +0.72%) modestly higher today in reaction to Intel's (INTC 36.03, -0.19 -0.52%) announcement that it commenced its previously announced cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of MBLY at a price of $63.54 per share.
Zhaopin (ZPIN 17.74, +0.55 +3.20%) entered a definitive merger agreement for $18.20 per share.
Analyst actions:
BCE was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup,
NTAP was upgraded to Mkt Perform from Mkt Underperform at JMP Securities,
AMTD was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Buckingham, DXC was upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley,
SCON was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Rodman & Renshaw;
TMUS was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank;
AMD was initiated with a Sell at Goldman,
SSNC was initiated with a Buy at UBS,
NTNX was initiated with a Buy at BofA/Merrill,
PANW was initiated with a Buy at Monness Crespi & Hardt,
MIME was initiated with a Neutral at Monness Crespi & Hardt
