Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market has exhibited choppy action at the index level thus far. The S&P 500 (-0.3%) and Nasdaq Composite (-0.5%) hit session lows over the last half hour, but each traded up as much as 0.2% at session highs. Market breadth has been negative through the entire session, though.

Decliners lead advancers by a 5-to-2 margin at the NYSE and by a 7-to-2 margin at the Nasdaq.

Volatile action in Treasuries and mega cap stocks has driven price action in the equity market today. The 10-yr yield reached 4.73% earlier, but pulled back to 4.68% as the major indices hit session highs. It sits at 4.69% now. 

NVIDIA (NVDA 139.33, -0.79, -0.6%), Tesla (TSLA 392.59, -1.87, -0.5%), Amazon.com (AMZN 221.33, -0.78, -0.4%), and other mega caps were trading higher earlier, but made a sharp turn lower in recent trading. NVDA shares traded up as much as 2.7%, TSLA traded up as much as 2.1%, and AMZN shares showed a 0.5% gain at its session high.

Broad selling interest has ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors lower. The utilities (-1.4%) and communication services (-0.8%) sectors show the biggest declines while the health care sector trades 0.1% higher, alone in positive territory. 

There is also a technical element in play today after the S&P 500 dropped below its 50-day moving average (5,952) yesterday.

As a reminder, the NYSE is closed tomorrow in observance of the National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications -3.7%; Prior -21.9%
• December ADP Employment Change 122K (Briefing.com consensus 131K); Prior 146K
• Weekly Initial Claims 201K (Briefing.com consensus 218K); Prior 211K, Weekly Continuing Claims 1.867 mln; Prior was revised to 1.834 mln from 1.844 mln
  • The key takeaway from the report is that layoff activity is low, but for employees that lose their job it has become more challenging to find a new one.
• November Wholesale Inventories -0.2% (Briefing.com consensus -0.2%); Prior was revised to 0.0% from 0.2%