From Briefing.com: 4:20 pm : The S&P 500 settled higher by 0.3% to follow yesterday's 1.6% slide. Although the benchmark index advanced, it was unable to retake its 100-day moving average.
Eight of ten sectors finished in positive territory with energy leading the way. The sector displayed significant strength, climbing 1.8%, after outperforming during yesterday's session. Thanks to today's jump, energy is the only sector trading in positive territory this month.
On a related note, crude oil rose 0.4% to $109.40 per barrel, and has gained almost 12.0% so far this quarter amid increased tensions in the Middle East. Oil prices bear watching over the coming days as the continued strength has the potential to pose as a headwind to economic growth.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average is one of the groups with increased sensitivity to energy prices. The bellwether complex underperformed with a loss of 0.1% after falling 2.6% during yesterday's session. The weakness in transports weighed on the industrial sector, which added less than 0.1%.
Overall, today's rebound was not very robust. Yesterday, six sectors lost more than 1.0%, and today, none of those six advanced more than 0.4%. Outside of energy, only health care and discretionary shares finished ahead of the S&P.
The health care space advanced 0.4% as biotechnology rallied. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 193.32, +2.05) rose 1.1%, which helped the Nasdaq outperform the broader market.
Elsewhere, the discretionary space gained 0.4% as retailers displayed strength. Express (EXPR 21.10, +1.30) jumped 6.6% following its in-line report while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 77.79, +0.43) finished higher by 0.6%. While most discretionary components advanced, home builders lagged as the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 20.56, -0.10) slipped 0.5%.
Countercyclical sectors ended in mixed fashion as utilities (+0.3%) settled in-line while consumer staples (-0.7%) and telecom services (-0.5%) lagged.
Treasuries finished on their lows with the benchmark 10-yr yield tacking on six basis points to 2.78%.
Today's session saw below-average trading volume as less than 600 million shares changed hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
The weekly MBA Mortgage Index remained in a downtrend with today's 2.5% fall marking the fourteenth decline out of the past sixteen readings including last week's 4.6% slide.
Separately, July pending home sales fell 1.3%, which was worse than the 0.2% increase forecast by the Briefing.com consensus. Today's reading follows last month's decrease of 0.4%.
Tomorrow, weekly initial claims and the second estimate of second quarter GDP will be reported at 8:30 ET.
The U.S. Treasury will auction $29 billion in 7-yr notes.DJ30 +48.38 NASDAQ +14.83 SP500 +4.48 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1454/1.33 bln/1057 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1672/598.8 mln/1329
3:30 pm :
Oct crude oil rose for a fifth consecutive session on continued concerns over unrest in the Middle East. The energy component chopped around near the $110.00 per barrel level after pulling back from a high of $112.24 per barrel set in overnight action, its highest level since May 2011. It eventually settled at $110.07 per barrel, or 1.0% higher
Sep natural gas erased earlier losses after trading as low as $3.51 per MMBtu in morning pit trade. It broke into positive territory in last half hour of the floor session and closed 0.3% higher at $3.58 per MMBtu
Precious metals retreated into negative territory as the dollar index gained strength
Dec gold pulled back from its session high of $1431.00 per ounce and eventually settled with a 0.1% loss at $1418.70 per ounce
Sep silver brushed a session low of $24.22 per ounce after trading as high as $25.00 per ounce earlier in the session. It closed 1.1% lower at $24.38 per ounce
4:16PM Altera Board increases share repurchase authorization by an additional 30 mln shares to 41.1 mln (13% of shares outstanding) (ALTR) 34.79 +0.26 :
Atmel (ATML) is shipping in production quantities its new Atmel SAM D20, the first series in a new family of ultra-low power embedded Flash microcontrollers based on the ARM CortexM0+ processor.
07:24 am Arch Coal resumed with a Outperform at FBR Capital; tgt $6: . FBR Capital resumes coverage of ACI with a Outperform and sets target price at $6 after the co closed the divestiture of its Canyon Fuel subsidiary to Bowie Resources for $423M in net proceeds. They are also introducing our pro forma estimates to reflect the removal of expected earnings contributions from the divested assets. They continue to believe that the co has done a good job of extending debt maturities to wait for improvement in coal markets and selectively trimming the asset portfolio to opportunistically de-leverage the balance sheet. With the completion of the divestiture, Arch Coal has a pro forma cash balance of $1.3B (including marketable securities), a majority of which could be used to pay down debt once coal markets stabilize and ACI resumes FCF generation.
Market Summary
[Edit]
streaming quotes: ON
Chart for NASDAQ Composite Index (^IXIC)
Chart for Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (^DJI)
Symbol Last Change
Dow 14,824.51 Up 48.38(0.33%)
Nasdaq 3,593.35 Up 14.83(0.41%)
S&P 500 1,634.96 Up 4.48(0.27%)
10-Yr Bond 2.7820% Up 0.0610
NYSE Volume 0
Nasdaq Volume... 0
Indices: US - World | Most Actives
Advances & Declines
NYSE NASDAQ
Advances 2,206 (53%) 1,427 (55%)
Declines 1,843 (44%) 1,073 (41%)
Unchanged 134 (3%) 94 (4%)
Up Vol* 1,655 (53%) 892 (66%)
Down Vol* 1,391 (45%) 440 (33%)
Unch. Vol* 71 (2%) 18 (1%)
New Hi's 56 63
New Lo's 171 48
*in millions
more...
Most Actives
NYSE LAST CHANGE
BAC 14.12 Up 0.07%
VXX 16.48 Down 0.30%
F 16.02 Up 0.88%
JCP 12.76 Down 3.11%
C 48.31 Up 0.15%
Nasdaq LAST CHANGE
FB 40.55 Up 2.29%
MSFT 33.02 Down 0.72%
MU 13.24 Up 0.46%
BBRY 10.30 Up 2.70%
INTC 22.28 Up 0.42%
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
