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Quiet Session Ends With Slim Losses
17-May-18 16:20 ET
Dow -54.95 at 24713.98, Nasdaq -15.82 at 7382.48, S&P -2.33 at 2720.13

https://www.briefing.com/investor/markets/stock-market-update/2018/5/17/quiet-session-ends-with-slim-losses.htm

[BRIEFING.COM] Stocks wandered between positive and negative territory on Thursday, eventually settling the session a tick lower. The S&P 500 shed 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2% apiece. Conversely, the small-cap Russell 2000 advanced 0.6%, closing at a new record high for the second day in a row.

Investors kept an eye on the Treasury market, where yields continued to hover at multi-year highs. The benchmark 10-yr yield, for instance, ticked up to 3.11% from 3.10% to finish at its highest level since July 2011. A rise in Treasury yields, which offer a "risk free" return, has lured some buyers away from the equity market this week, putting Wall Street's May rally on hold.

U.S.-China trade relations were also in focus on Thursday after President Trump said he's doubtful that the two nations will reach a trade agreement. The two countries are on the brink of imposing tens of billions of dollars worth of tariffs against one another, but are currently engaged in talks with hopes of avoiding that scenario.

In corporate news, CBS (CBS 51.61, -2.22) shares dropped 4.1% after a judge ruled against the company in its attempt to break free from its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, who is attempting to force a CBS-Viacom (VIAB 28.16, -0.11) merger. The Redstone family controls both CBS and Viacom through its holding company, National Amusements.

Meanwhile, on the earnings front, shares of Walmart (WMT 84.49, -1.64) lost 1.9% after the world's largest retailer reported above-consensus earnings and revenues for the first quarter, but missed estimates for same-store sales. Similarly, shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO 43.46, -1.70) dropped 3.8% despite the company reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.

Energy shares were strong on Thursday, pushing the S&P 500's energy sector higher by 1.3%, even though crude prices spent the bulk of the day giving back an overnight gain of more than 1.0%. West Texas Intermediate crude futures eventually settled higher by 0.1% at $71.48 per barrel. Still, that marks the commodity's best close in three-and-a-half years.

Most of the other S&P groups finished in negative territory, with the rate-sensitive utilities space (-0.9%) closing at the back of the pack. The top-weighted technology sector also lagged, losing 0.5%, due in part to Cisco's sizable slide, but also due to broad weakness. Tech giants like Apple (AAPL 186.99, -1.19) and Microsoft (MSFT 96.18, -0.97) lost 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively.

Reviewing Thursday's economic data, which included weekly Initial Claims, the Philadelphia Fed Index for May, and the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index for April:

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 222,000, while the Briefing.com consensus expected a reading of 216,000. Today's tally was above the unrevised prior week count of 211,000. As for continuing claims, they declined to 1.707 million from a revised count of 1.794 million (from 1.790 million).
The key takeaway from the initial claims report is that it covers the period in which the survey for the May employment report was conducted. The continued low level of initial claims, then, should continue to feed expectations for another solid increase in nonfarm payrolls.
The Philadelphia Fed Survey for May rose to 34.4 (Briefing.com consensus 20.0) from an unrevised 23.2 in April.
The key takeaway from the report is that the Prices Received Index -- a reflection of manufacturers' own prices -- increased seven points to 36.4, which is the highest reading since February 1989.
The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index increased 0.4% in April (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%), and the March increase was revised to 0.4% from 0.3%.
The key takeaway from the report is that the strength among the leading indicators remains very widespread.

Investors will not receive any economic data on Friday.

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