Good morning.
The Dow was positive for a very short time, but overall it’s a broad retreat in the early going.
S&P 500 -0.2%
Dow -0.2%
Nasdaq -0.3%
The S&P 500 might have a hard time clearing 1900.
Technical analysts often say big round numbers can offer resistance.
“SPX500 remains stuck below 1,900 resistance while RSI levelling off suggests upward momentum faltering again,” says Colin Ciezynski, senior market analyst at CMC Markets, in emailed comments today.
RSI stands for Relative Strength Index.
So where could the S&P fall back to?
“Initial support in a correction possible near 1,870 then 1,850 with a run at the 2,000 round number possible on a breakout,” the CMC analyst says.
Fossil /quotes/zigman/17693969/delayed /quotes/nls/fosl FOSL is the S&P 500′s biggest loser today.
Late Tuesday, the company provided quarterly earnings that beat forecasts, but its outlook disappointed investors.
Fossil was last down more than 8%.
Photo credit: Bloomberg
Katie Stockton, chief technical strategist at BTIG, suggests today could be a digestion day, with the stock market’s rally resuming later this week.
She writes in emailed comments this morning:
“The S&P futures reached a new all-time high on Monday, and are now digesting their gains via an intraday consolidation phase. We expect the rally to resume later this week. The SPX would confirm its breakout on consecutive closes above 1897.28 (possibly today) for an intermediate-term measured move target of about 1975. This is the same target derived from a previous breakout, and it seems attainable to us as intermediate-term momentum improves.”
Today’s biggest data release was the report on the producer price index (PPI — wholesale prices), but it doesn’t seem earthshattering even with the bigger-than-expected jump of 0.6%.
Economists “caution against reading too much into the PPI because the index underwent its first major makeover in years at the start of 2014,” writes MarketWatch’s Jeff Bartash.
“The index has been quite volatile in its new incarnation.”
Still, wholesale prices did post the biggest increase in April since the fall of 2012 and jumped for the second straight month.
That suggests that price pressures might be building a bit after an extended period of extremely low inflation, according to Bartash.
The Nasdaq is trying to hold in the green, as the tech-heavy index erases early losses.
It’s basically flat.
Well, that’s different.
The Nasdaq (-1.2% YTD) has generally been lagging the S&P 500 (+2.5% YTD) this year — as traders well know.
But it’s been outperforming somewhat so far today at least.
It’s back in the red though at last check, down nearly 0.2% for the day after trying to turn positive.
About 50 minutes into today’s session, the main indexes are all firmly in the red.
The Nasdaq’s attempt to turn positive and outperform the other two main indexes for once has flopped.
S&P 500 -0.29%
Nasdaq -0.36%
Dow -0.36%
Apple /quotes/zigman/68270/delayed /quotes/nls/aapl AAPL is bucking today’s generally negative trend, last up 0.3%.
There’s some more chatter about a potential iPhone 6.
Some Apple employees have been banned from taking any leave in September, the usual month for the launch of a new iPhone, says a 9to5Mac report.
Photo credit: Bloomberg
The market doesn’t have that much economic data to chew on today, but it’ll get a lot more tomorrow, and then a bit more on Friday.
The reports will include readings on the housing market.
A home-builder ETF /quotes/zigman/1496092/delayed /quotes/nls/itb ITB has risen above its 200-day moving average as these housing reports loom.
“Traders continue to watch the Homebuilders (ITB) dancing on the 200dma into this week’s Housing Starts and Building Permits for April releases,” wrote Dave Lutz, Stifel’s head of ETF trading and strategy, in one of his “What Traders Are Watching” notes.
He added that “many are eyeballing a potential head and shoulders pattern developing.”
Read more here.
Beyond that home-builder ETF, here’s how other key ETFs are faring today.
These ETFs have basically become market barometers lately.
IWM /quotes/zigman/260873/delayed /quotes/nls/iwm IWM , which tracks small caps, was last down 0.8%
SOCL /quotes/zigman/7289836/delayed /quotes/nls/socl SOCL , the social media ETF, was last up 1.2% — getting some love on Zuck’s b-day
A strong earnings report from Chinese Internet giant Tencent is boosting SOCL.
FDN /quotes/zigman/1497276/delayed /quotes/nls/fdn FDN , an Internet ETF, was last down 0.2%
IBB /quotes/zigman/85342/delayed /quotes/nls/ibb IBB , a biotech ETF, was last up 1.2%
Photo credit: Everett Collection
Wall Street is giving back some of its record-breaking gains. MarketWatch’s Ann Cates reports.
Among large-cap companies, today’s winners are utilities and telecomes sector stocks, while financials and consumer discretionary stocks are lagging behind.
The two-month swoon in technology stocks has given investors flashbacks to the dot-com meltdown. But at least one harbinger of trouble is absent today: tech firms in danger of collapse. Shira Ovide joins MoneyBeat. Photo: Getty Images.
Treasury prices rallied Wednesday, sending the benchmark yield to its lowest level of the calendar year, as investors reacted to dovish monetary policy signals from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, writes Ben Eisen.
The ECB was said to be preparing measures to combat low inflation, including using negative deposit rates, according to news reports. The Bank of England left its forecasts intact in one sign that it may be on track to raise its key lending rates next year, but it signaled rates would remain on hold for now.
Small-cap stocks are selling off again today. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF /quotes/zigman/260873/delayed /quotes/nls/iwm IWM is down 0.8%.
Stocks have been trading mostly sideways in the past few hours and the main indexes are firmly in the red.
S&P 500 -0.30%
Dow -0.34%
Nasdaq -0.20%
The NYSE is having troubles again – this is from their news alert:
The NYSE BBO data feed is currently experiencing an issue with the symbol range D through J. An update will be provided shortly.
All other NYSE systems are currently functioning normally.
Some of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers and more than 1,000 investors are gathered in Las Vegas for Skybridge Capital’s SALT Conference.
MarketWatches William Watts is live-blogging the top market movers: SALT Conference live blog.
Shares of Plug Power Inc. /quotes/zigman/5142101/delayed /quotes/nls/plug PLUG are down 5.8% after the fuel cell supplier reported a quarterly loss.
Plug Power reported it lost 6 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the first quarter, wider than the loss of 5 cents a share forecast by analysts in a FactSet survey.
Marian Kessler, co-portfolio manager at the Becker Value Equity Fund, thinks it is. “Disinflation is much more dangerous,” she notes. Stocks are lower today as investors digest a report showing producer prices rose 0.6% in April.
Stocks stayed within a narrow trading range with all three major indexes showing slight losses on the day.
The S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX was down 3 points, or 0.2%, at 1,894.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA was down 58 points, or 0.3%, at 16,657.
The Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP was down 7 points, or 0.2%, at 4,132.
Netflix Inc. /quotes/zigman/87598/delayed /quotes/nls/nflx NFLX shares added to gains for the week Wednesday following a study that the streaming video service accounts for more than a third of North American Internet traffic during peak evening hours, MarketWatch’s Rex Crum reports.
Netflix shares were up 0.9% at $350.15, for a weekly gain of 6.6%. Shares are still down 4.9% on the year.
Earlier, the NYSE sent out an alert that the best-bid-and-offer data feed was having issues. It appears those have been resolved:
As stated previously, the NYSE experienced an issue with the NYSE BBO data feed for the symbol range D through J between 10:56:00 am and 1:03:00 pm ET today. This issue has since been resolved.
All other NYSE systems are currently functioning normally.
Shares of companies scheduled to report after the closing bell Wednesday were limping along at best during the regular session.
Shares of Cisco Systems Inc. /quotes/zigman/20039/delayed /quotes/nls/csco CSCO were the strongest, up 0.2% at $22.91. Shares are up 2.2% for the year.
U.S. shares of NetEase Inc. /quotes/zigman/83280/delayed /quotes/nls/ntes NTES fell 0.1%.
Agilent Technologies Inc. /quotes/zigman/216117/delayed /quotes/nls/a A shares fell 1.7%.
Remax Holdings Inc. /quotes/zigman/20887177/delayed /quotes/nls/rmax RMAX shares fell 0.4%.
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. /quotes/zigman/14150718/delayed /quotes/nls/seas SEAS shares declined 1.6%.
Jack In The Box Inc. /quotes/zigman/66208/delayed /quotes/nls/jack JACK shares fell 2.4%.
In a match between handbags and watches the former are winning.
Andria Cheng compares sales of Kate Spade, Fossil and Michael Kors.
Upscale fashion accessories have been a bright spot in the U.S. in recent years, with designers and retailers selling branded items from handbags to watches, categories that are subject to fewer fashion or weather risks than apparel.
However, as both categories are expected to see their growth slow, it looks like handbags may have more runway than watches. Just look at Kate Spade and Fossil Inc. , for example. Kate Spade shares jumped 9% on Wednesday after the handbag company reported comparable direct-to-consumer sales at its namesake brand jumped 22%, without the benefit of an extra week this year. Its sales per square foot rose for 15 straight quarters, the company said.
On the other hand,Fossil’s stock dropped 8.9% Wednesday after reporting its global comparable sales fell for a third straight quarter, hurt by waning demand in North America.
Stocks are telling you a bear market is coming, is the title of the column by Michael Sincere.
Bear markets start with a whimper or a bang. When it starts with a bang, the first clue will be a major break in the market that no one can correctly explain. That will eventually be followed by a correction (or crash), and everyone will know that something bad has happened. The indexes will fall by double digits, investors will panic, and stocks get slaughtered.
Stocks lower after records for the Dow and S&P. Sears thinking about exiting Canada. Adrienne Mitchell reports.
Selling in markets has accelerated in the past twenty or so minutes. Dow dropped 100 points at sessions lows.
Small stocks are sliding – the Russell 2000 is down about 1.4% at last check.
As the Dow and S&P 500 set new records, investors have to wonder if valuations and fundamentals still matter, writes John Nyaradi.
From his column: When fundementals don’t matter anymore.
Investors who prefer to load their portfolios with “momentum” stocks took a beating in late March and early April when the market suddenly lost its appetite for stocks with high price/earnings ratios. Reasonably priced stocks mostly held their value, while equities with no earnings fell off a cliff.
Earlier today, a report on wholesale prices showed a big jump in April. Jeffry Bartash writes that Wall Street is sure to pay greater attention to Thursday’s report on consumer inflation.
Consumer prices have been been quite tame over the past few years, the result of sluggish economic growth and fierce global competition for customers. Yet they have been on the rise lately owing to escalating food, energy, housing and health-care expenses.
With about 5 minutes before the closing bell, stocks seem on track to end the day near session lows.
S&P 500 -9.5 points
Dow -101 points
Nasdaq -31 points
Stocks are closing with a thud.
The Dow average is off 101 points, or 0.6%, at 16,614.
The S&P 500 is down 0.5% at 1,888.5.
The Nasdaq Composite is off 0.7% to 4,100.
Afterhours, Cisco /quotes/zigman/20039/delayed /quotes/nls/csco CSCO shares are jumping 4%.
#Cisco just beat even the whisper EPS number. $csco up 4%. More soon.