Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] It was another lackluster day in the stock market. The three major indices traded slightly higher or slightly lower than prior closing levels, ultimately settling in mixed fashion. Today's price action led the S&P 500 (+0.1%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.1%) further into record territory. 

There wasn't a lot of conviction on either side of the tape in front of influential economic data this week. The June Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index will be released Thursday and Friday, respectively.

The muted action is also in front of the start of earnings season. JPMorgan Chase (JPM 207.63, +2.46, +1.2%), Wells Fargo (WFC 59.88, +0.87, +1.5%), and Citigroup (C 66.55, +1.81, +2.8%) were among the top performing names in the heavily-weighted financial sector (+0.7%) ahead their quarterly results on Friday.

The SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE) closed 1.7% higher and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) jumped 1.8%. 

Fed Chair Powell's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today did not garner a big reaction from the stock or bond market. Mr. Powell will also appear before the House Financial Services Committee tomorrow. There were no surprises in today's remarks, which featured an acknowledgement that the "likely next direction" of policy will be a loosening of policy, indicating a rate hike is not likely.

The 10-yr note yield settled three basis points higher at 4.30% and the 2-yr note yield rose one basis point to 4.63%. This price action was also in response to today's $58 billion 3-yr note auction, which met strong demand. 

• Nasdaq Composite: +22.8% YTD
• S&P 500: +16.9% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +4.3% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +3.8% YTD
• Russell 2000: +0.1% YTD

Today's economic data was limited to the NFIB Small Business Optimism Survey, which rose to 91.5 in June from 90.5.

Wednesday's economic data features:

• 7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior -2.6%)
• 10:00 ET: May Wholesale Inventories (Briefing.com consensus 0.6%; prior 0.1%)
• 10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior -12.16 mln)