Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] Today's trade featured a negative bias driven by normal consolidation activity after this week's record closing highs. Decliners led advancers by a 3-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by a 5-to-2 margin at the Nasdaq. The three major indices closed little changed from yesterday, though, thanks to gains in some mega cap stocks. 

NVIDIA (NVDA 131.88, +2.27, +1.8%), Alphabet (GOOG 178.37, +1.63, +0.9%), Microsoft (MSFT 442.57, +0.99, +0.2%), Meta Platforms (META 504.16, +0.56, +0.1%), and Broadcom (AVGO 1735.04, +56.05, +3.3%) are winning standouts from the mega cap space.

The top performing stock in the S&P 500 was Adobe (ADBE 525.31, +66.57, +14.5%), which closed sharply higher following pleasing earnings results and guidance.

Gains in the aforementioned names propelled their respective S&P 500 sectors to positive territory today while the eight sectors closed with losses ranging from 0.1% (health care) to 1.0% (industrials). The information technology (+0.5%), and communication services (+0.6%) sectors were the top performers. 

The broad selling activity left the equal-weighted S&P 500 with a 0.6% decline. The overall downside bias was catalyzed by political uncertainty around the French election, which stirred speculation about an EU exit move if France's left-wing bloc wins, along with growth concerns following a weak consumer sentiment report for June.

The preliminary reading for the June University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment showed an unexpected drop in consumer sentiment (actual 65.5; expected 73.0; prior 69.1) and a rise in long-run inflation expectations to 3.1% from 3.0%.

The Treasury market didn't react much to the report, though. The 2-yr note yield settled unchanged from yesterday at 4.69% and the 10-yr note yield fell two basis points to 4.22%.

• Nasdaq Composite: +17.8% YTD
• S&P 500:+13.9% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +4.1% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +2.4% YTD
• Russell 2000: -1.0% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• May Import Prices -0.4%; Prior 0.9%
• May Import Prices ex-oil -0.3%; Prior 0.7%
• May Export Prices -0.6%; Prior was revised to 0.6% from 0.5%
• May Export Prices ex-ag. -0.8%; Prior 0.7%
• January Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Prelim 65.6 (Briefing.com consensus 73.0); Prior 69.1
  • The key takeaway from the report is that consumers' assessment of their personal finances slipped due to high prices and weakening incomes. That could presage some weakening spending activity.

Looking ahead, there is no US economic data of note on Monday. Tuesday's calendar features the May Retail Sales report and the May Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization report. As a reminder, markets will be closed on Wednesday in observation of Juneteenth.