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Down day for market, but cyclical sectors outperform
17-Sep-20 16:20 ET

Dow -130.40 at 27891.98, Nasdaq -140.19 at 10910.29, S&P -28.48 at 3357.01

https://www.briefing.com/stock-market-update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 declined 0.8% on Thursday, as relative weakness in the mega-caps overshadowed signs of life in more cyclical areas of the market. The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.5%, and the Russell 2000 declined 0.6%.

The communication services (-1.8%), consumer discretionary (-1.6%), and information technology (-0.8%) sectors represented the mega-cap losses, but the real estate sector (-2.2%) declined the most. The cyclical materials (+0.8%), industrials (+0.2%), and energy (+0.2%) sectors outperformed all day and closed higher.

A 10% decline in Snowflake (SNOW 227.54, -26.39, -10.4%) following yesterday's remarkable IPO might have stirred valuation concerns, or profit-taking activity, in many of the mega-cap/growth/momentum stocks. Apple (AAPL 110.34, -1.79) fell 1.6% but it was down as much as 3.1% intraday.

Conversely, factors that contributed to the outperformance of cyclical and value stocks included an inclination to buy cheaper stocks amid the mega-cap weakness, higher oil prices ($40.99, +0.82, +2.0%) that favored energy stocks, Nucor (NUE 48.97, +1.41, +3.0%) issuing upside Q3 EPS guidance, and follow-through buying interest in General Electric (GE 7.05, +0.30, +4.4%) after an 11% gain yesterday.

Notably, the 50-day moving average (3340) in the S&P 500 proved to be an area of technical support. The benchmark index traded slightly below the key technical level for parts of the day but closed above it, which was good for sentiment reasons. For what it's worth, each of the major indices also closed off session lows.

In Washington, House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) repeated that a stimulus deal must be at least $2.2 trillion, throwing cold water on a $1.5 trillion relief bill proposed by centrist lawmakers that President Trump said he liked.

U.S. Treasuries finished the session little changed. The 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 0.13%, and the 10-yr yield was flat at 0.68%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.4% to 92.89.

Reviewing Thursday's economic data:

Initial claims for the week ending September 12 decreased by 33,000 to 860,000 (Briefing.com consensus 830,000). Continuing claims for the week ending September 5 decreased by 916,000 to 12.628 million.
The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims remain excessively high six months after the employment crash of the COVID pandemic. In the same week a year ago, initial claims were 211,000.
Housing Starts for August declined 5.1% m/m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.416 million units (Briefing.com consensus 1.489 million) but were up 2.8% yr/yr. Building Permits declined 0.9% m/m to 1.470 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.520 million) and were down 0.1% yr/yr.
The key takeaway from the report is that there was continued strength in single-family units, with starts up 4.1% m/m (+12.1% yr/yr) and permits up 6.0% m/m (+15.6% yr/yr) amid strong demand.
The Philadelphia Fed Index decreased to 15.0 in September (Briefing.com consensus 13.0) from 17.2 in August.

Looking ahead, investors will receive the preliminary University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for September, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index for August, and the Q2 Current Account Balance on Friday.

Nasdaq Composite +21.6% YTD
S&P 500 +3.9% YTD
Dow Jones Industrial Average -2.2% YTD
Russell 2000 -7.5% YTD