Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.9%) surged more than 700 points, moving further into record territory. The S&P 500 (+0.6%) had another record high close today, too. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 jumped 3.5%, continuing its recent outperformance. 

With today's gain, the Russell 2000 is 10.6% higher since the start of July. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are up 3.8% and 4.4%, respectively, over the same time.

Today's trade was a continuation of the broadening out exhibited in recent sessions, driven by momentum and a drop in market rates. The 10-yr note yield settled at 4.17%, down six basis points from yesterday, and the 2-yr note yield settled at 4.44%, down one basis point from yesterday.

Losses in the mega cap space acted as a limiting factor for the major indices. NVIDIA (NVDA 126.36, -2.08, -1.6%), Meta Platforms (META 489.79, -6.37, -1.3%), and Microsoft (MSFT 449.52, -4.44, -1.0%) were among the influential losers. 

Buying activity was fairly robust elsewhere. The equal-weighted S&P 500 registered a 1.7% gain. Advancers had a 4-to-1 lead over decliners at the NYSE and a 7-to-2 lead at the Nasdaq.

The upside bias today was also supported by positive responses to some earnings news. Dow component UnitedHealth (UNH 548.87, +33.50, +6.5%) logged a sharp gain after its earnings report.

Bank of America (BAC 44.13, +2.24, +5.4%) and PNC Financials (PNC 176.98, +7.96, +4.7%) were top performers in the S&P 500 financial sector (+1.2%) following pleasing earnings news. Morgan Stanley (MS 106.22, +0.96, +0.9%) also logged an earnings-related gain.

Six other sectors in addition to the financial sector jumped at least 1.0% today. The industrial sector (+2.5%) registered the largest gain by a decent margin followed by materials (+2.0%). The heavily-weighted information technology (-0.4%) and communication services (-0.6%) sectors were alone in negative territory by the close.

• Nasdaq Composite: +23.3% YTD
• S&P 500: +18.8% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +12.0% YTD
• Russell 2000: +11.7% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +8.7% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• June Retail Sales 0.0% (Briefing.com consensus -0.1%); Prior was revised to 0.3% from 0.1%; June Retail Sales ex-auto 0.4% (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%); Prior was revised to 0.1% from -0.1%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that it conveyed some rather solid levels of discretionary spending on goods in June that belies any hard landing tracking for the economy.
• June Import Prices 0.0%; Prior was revised to -0.3% from -0.4%
• June Import Prices ex-oil 0.2%; Prior -0.3%
• June Export Prices -0.5%; Prior was revised to -0.7% from -0.6%
• June Export Prices ex-ag. -0.6%; Prior -0.8%
• May Business Inventories 0.5% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.3%
• July NAHB Housing Market Index 42 (Briefing.com consensus 44); Prior 43

Tomorrow's economic lineup features:

• 7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior -0.2%)
• 8:30 ET: June Housing Starts (Briefing.com consensus 1.310 mln; prior 1.277 mln) and Building Permits (Briefing.com consensus 1.391 mln; prior 1.386 mln)
• 9:15 ET: June Industrial Production (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%; prior 0.9%) and Capacity Utilization (Briefing.com consensus 78.6%; prior 78.7%)
• 10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior -3.44 mln)