Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.2%) and the Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%) closed at or near their highs of the day after a surge of buying in the mega cap space in the afternoon trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly higher than yesterday and the Russell 2000 logged a 0.2% decline.

Apple (AAPL 213.25, +4.18, +2.0%), Amazon.com (AMZN 193.61, +7.27, +3.9%), and Tesla (TSLA 196.37, +9.02, +4.8%) were among the top performers from the mega cap space. NVIDIA (NVDA 126.40, +0.31, +0.3%) was another influential name in the mega cap space, trading down as much as 2.8% before turning higher ahead of the close.

FedEx (FDX 296.19, +39.81, +15.5%) also garnered attention today following better-than-expected earnings and an indication that demand is expected to improve through FY25. Meanwhile, General Mills (GIS 64.17, -3.09, -4.6%) was a standout loser after a fiscal Q4 earnings report that included a revenue miss driven by lower prices and lower volumes.

There was an underlying negative bias driving today's action. Decliners lead advancers by a roughly 4-to-3 margin at both the NYSE and at the Nasdaq.

The price action in Treasuries contributed to the underlying downside bias in equities. The 10-yr note yield settled eight basis points higher at 4.32% and the 2-yr note yield rose two basis points to 4.32% despite a solid $70 billion 5-yr note sale today. The market was also digesting a below-consensus New Home Sales report for May.

The equal-weighted S&P 500 registered a 0.4% decline and eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors settled lower. The financial sector was among the worst performers, down 0.5%, while the consumer discretionary sector (+2.0%) led the pack. 

• Nasdaq Composite: +18.6% YTD
• S&P 500:+14.8% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +4.7% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +3.8% YTD
• Russell 2000: -0.4% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index 0.8%; Prior 0.9%
• May New Home Sales 619K (Briefing.com consensus 650K); Prior was revised to 698K from 634K
  • The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales activity languished in May, but after accounting for the upward revision to April sales, the combined two-month period was actually better than what was embedded in the consensus estimate for May (650,000) and the original report for April (634,000). Even so, it is clear that higher mortgage rates and elevated prices continue to pressure new home sales (-16.5% yr/yr).

Thursday's economic calendar features:

• 8:30 ET: May advance goods trade balance (prior -$99.4 bln), advance Retail Inventories (prior 0.7%), advance Wholesale Inventories (prior 0.2%), weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 238,000; prior 238,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.828 mln), May Durable Orders (Briefing.com consensus -1.2%; prior 0.7%), Durable Orders ex-transportation (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%; prior 0.4%), Q1 GDP -- third estimate (Briefing.com consensus 1.3%; prior 1.3%), and Q1 GDP Deflator -- third estimate (Briefing.com consensus 3.1%; prior 3.0%)
• 10:00 ET: May Pending Home Sales (Briefing.com consensus 2.3%; prior -7.7%)
• 10:30 ET: Weekly natural gas inventories (prior +71 bcf)