Stocks are off to a positive start, looking to maintain the momentum that ensured equities ended Friday with a weekly advance despite a midweek stumble in the wake of remarks by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen
S&P 500 up 3.32 points, or 0.2%, at 1,869.84
DJIA — up 60.30, or 0.4%, at 16,363.07
Nasdaq — up 17.85, or 0.2%, at 7,532.03
Early gains for the Nasdaq Composite proved fragile, giving way to a loss.
The index is now off 20 points, or 0.5%, at 4,258.
While the tech sector sings the blues, dragging down the Nasdaq, Apple shares /quotes/zigman/68270/delayed /quotes/nls/aapl AAPL are holding on to a 1% gain, buoyed by talks between the world’s most valuable company and Comcast, the largest U.S. cable provider, over a tie-up for a streaming-TV service that would use an Apple set-top box.
Under the deal, the service would get special treatment on Comcast cables to ensure it bypasses congesion on the web, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Comcast shares /quotes/zigman/89307/delayed /quotes/nls/cmcsa CMCSA were down 0.2%.
Herbalife is up around 6% after the maker of nutritional products said it would nominate three additional designees anointed by Carl Icahn to its board. The company last week announced it was postponing its annual meeting to continue talks with the billionaire investor, whose Icahn Enterprises owns 17% of Herbalife shares.
Herbalife is down more than 33% since the beginning of the year and plunged earlier this month after the Federal Trade Commission said it would investigate the nutrition company, which hedge-fund titan Bill Ackman has charged is a pyramid scheme — a charge the company and its supporters have vehemently denied.
While the Nasdaq turned lower, the S&P 500 slowly gave back a modest rise and is down 2 points, or about 0.1%, near 1,865.
The Dow industirals are hanging on to positive territory, up 24 points, or 0.2%, at 16,326.
The Nasdaq remains down around 22 points, or 0.5%, at 4,255.
The Dow just turned red, putting all three major indexes in negative territory:
S&P 500 — down 6, or 0.3%, at 1,861
DJIA — down 3, or less than 0.1%, at 16,299
Nasdaq — down 32, or 0.7%, at 4,244
The Markit “flash” PMI isn’t usually a big market mover. It showed manufacturing activity continued to grow in March, but at a slower pace than in February.
Stock-market bulls took solace in upbeat economic data to keep major indexes in positive territory last week, shrugging off a midweek tumble sparked by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s hint that official interest rates could start to rise a bit earlier in 2015 than investors had penciled in.
But Matt Freund, chief investment officer at USAA, said it still looked like markets were being driven by momentum rather than fundamentals. He writes:
Given the continued tapering of the Fed’s bond buying (down from $65 billion to $55 billion per month starting in April) and greater uncertainty on when rates will start rising, we should not be surprised to see more volatility in markets in the near term. From a valuation perspective, we believe U.S. stocks are currently overpriced, and thus we are underweight in our managed portfolios.
Shares of streaming online-videop provider Netflix are taking it on the chin in the wake of that Apple-Comcast streaming-TV story. Netflix is /quotes/zigman/87598/delayed /quotes/nls/nflx NFLX down more than 5%.
Nasdaq is diving deeper into the red and other indexes are following:
Nasdaq — down 56 points, or 1.3%, at 4,219
S&P 500 — down 11, or 0.6%, at 1,856
DJIA — down 33, or 0.2%, at 16,271
Carnage in biotechnology stocks was the theme again on Monday as shares across the sector tumbled several percentage points and mutual funds specializing in biotechs took it on the chin.
From Russ Britt’s story:
Monday’s sell-off comes on the heels of a biotech downturn on Friday, which was deeper and wider than Monday’s pullback. On that day, though, a number of biotech-oriented exchange-traded funds were all down more than 4%.
On Monday, it was the mutual funds’ turn at the whipping post. Several were down more than 4%, and one, the Biotechnology UltraSector ProFund /quotes/zigman/265018/realtime BIPIX , tumbled nearly 7%.
MarketWatch’s Victor Reklaitis details three key stocks, including Apple and Cisco, to watch on Monday. Photo: AP.
The S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX is very close to the support level of 1,850. Last week, the bechmark index bounced off the 1,855 level.
The Nasdaq Composite /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP is hit the hardest, down 1.8% at last check.
The Dow d /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA is only slightly lower.
Last week, indexes had a momentary Yellen-infused tantrum, when they sold off on her comments about the timing of the first rate hikes. (They clawed back those losses the following day).
Since last Wedensday, a few Fed speakers commented on her “probably six months after the end of bond purchases” remark, trying to clarify just what she meant.
San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams in an interview with Washington Post said there was no suggestion from the Federal Reserve last week that the central bank will pull the trigger to hike interest rates sooner than previously believed.
For more read our short story by Greg Robb.
Jim Russell, senior equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management, is not too concerned by the weakness in the markets today.
We believe markets are waiting for economic data this week - for validation that weather was indeed the main culprit in the weakness in the economy this winter.
If it turns out that it was not the weather, then there will be a downside risk.
We also expect companies to soften their first-quarter guidance ahead of the earnings season, as weather put a damper on their profits.
Nasdaq’s gains since the start of the year are dissipating at an alarming rate. It is now up 0.7% for the year. Its year-to-date gain was more than 4% at the beginning of the month.
The tech-heavy index’s outperformance of the S&P 500 is also negligible.
Small-cap stocks are not faring well today. The Russell 2000 index is down about 1.8% and trimmed the gains for 2014 to 0.7%
Shares of Nu Skin Enterprises /quotes/zigman/170032/delayed /quotes/nls/nus NUS jumped 18% as investors were relieved by the relatively light punishment from the Chinese government.
The direct marketer had been under investigation in China for its business practices in the country. The company said last week that it expects to be fined and possibly face additional sanctions once the probe concludes. However, it was only fined $540,000 which many viewed as a slap on the wrist.
As of mid-day Monday, all three stock indexes are in retreat with the Nasdaq posting the worst losses.
S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX is off 0.9%.
Dow Jones Industrial /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA is down 0.5%.
Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP slid 1.8%.
Stocks are lower to start the week as traders await further economic data and developments in Ukraine. David Hefty, co-founder and CEO of Hefty Wealth Partners sees a sideways week. He says it may take several months to resolve the “bad weather versus weak demand” debate.
WSJ’s Spencer Jakab discusses why Robert Shiller’s technique for deriving P/E ratios should get a second look. Photo: Getty Images.
Markets should be worrying about Ukrains, says El-Erian.
From our Tell post by Ben Eisen:
Markets have been lulled to complacency by geopolitical tensions in recent years, says to Mohamed El-Erian, who’s still typing up a storm after his departure from Pimco.
But, he says, beware of Ukraine.
In a fresh commentary posted to the Financial Times on Monday, El-Erian says markets have “brushed aside” concerns about Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Syria, to saying nothing of rising tensions in Turkey and Venezuela. With Ukraine, the market had a single day of fear over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Gold prices tumbled in the face of some strength in the U.S. dollar. Some analysts speculate that investors are continuing to cash in on the strong run the metal has seen this year so far.
April gold futures fell $24.80, or 1.9% to $1,311.2
Pandora Media Inc shares slid 8.3% to $31.19, reportedly after news that Aplle, Inc, which offers its iTunes Radio as a rival, may be ready to launch an iTunes Radio app for Google Inc’s Android.
Pandora’s market value grew nearly three-fold in 2013, but in the past month, shares have been sliding.
Talks between the personal tech and media giants simply may lead to a new version of the same old thing. Listen to the newscast from MarketWatch Radio Network:
Netflix shares tumble on Wall Street Journal report of an Apple-Comcast deal. Stocks lower. MarketWatch Radio‘s Adrienne Mitchell reports.
While European and U.S. stock markets are hit today, BRICs are doing well.
BRIC ETFs are all higher (some more than others – Russia is up only slightly):
Brazil /quotes/zigman/264176/delayed /quotes/nls/ewz EWZ +1.3%
Russia rsx /quotes/zigman/464082/delayed /quotes/nls/rsx RSX +0.4%
China f /quotes/zigman/357940/delayed /quotes/nls/fxi FXI +1.5%
India /quotes/zigman/115419/delayed /quotes/nls/indy INDY +2.1%
In case of Indian ETFs – they are climbing as election looms – to the point of ‘irrational exuberance’. More in this Tell Post from Vic Reklaitis.
Shares in Apple, Inc /quotes/zigman/68270/delayed /quotes/nls/aapl AAPL are are up 1.1% – a significant move for the largest company on the S&P 500 by market capitalization.
From Benjamin Pimentel:
Apple Inc is expected to roll out the iPhone 6 late summer or early fall, some analysts said Monday, citing checks with the company’s suppliers. Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves said in a note that he expects “significant component orders to begin in July, which is consistent with public availability of the device in late September or October.”
MarketWatch’s Wallace Witkowski on Morgan Stanley’s 44 stock on takeover target radar:
With U.S. corporations sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash and many companies facing organic growth challenges, investors are on the lookout for the next big multi-billion dollar acquisition.
About 44 multi-billion dollar cap companies have a high likelihood of receiving at least one tender offer over the next 12 months, according to a screen by Morgan Stanley.
Stocks are bouncing back a little, with the Dow average now in positive territory. The biggest gainer on the index is Procter & Gamble – up 2%.
The S&P 500 is still down 5 points – it bounced off after hitting 1,851 earlier today.
Meg Whitman apparently got a bit too excited about Hewlett-Packard’s /quotes/zigman/229301/delayed /quotes/nls/hpq HPQ big 3-D printing offensive, reports MarketWatch’s Ben Pimentel in a blog post.
The rollout isn’t happening as soon as she suggested.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Stocks closed lower, with the Dow failing to hold in the green.
Dow -0.2%
SPX -0.5%
Nasdaq -1.2%
Biotech stocks /quotes/zigman/85342/delayed /quotes/nls/ibb IBB got hammered again, plus other tech darlings like Facebook /quotes/zigman/9962609/delayed /quotes/nls/fb FB and Tesla /quotes/zigman/118681/delayed /quotes/nls/tsla TSLA fell hard, weighing on the Nasdaq.
Facebook, TripAdvisor /quotes/zigman/7619815/delayed /quotes/nls/trip TRIP and Yahooyh /quotes/zigman/59898/delayed /quotes/nls/yhoo YHOO — all down more than 3% — couldn’t have been helped by a Wall Street Journal story about rampant fraud in online advertising.
Also on the downside: China delivered weaker-than-expected manufacturing data. However, Asian markets shrugged that off to finish higher.
On the upside: The U.S. economy is poised for springtime bloom if the latest Markit manufacturing report is taken at face value. Read more on that here.
Photo credit: Shutterstock.com
Sonic /quotes/zigman/78022/delayed /quotes/nls/sonc SONC is gaining after hours as investors cheer its quarterly earnings report.
Our After Hours column will be posted shortly with info on Sonic’s quarterly results and more.
Meanwhile, the G-7 nations have cancelled the G-8 summit in Sochi.
That’s a wrap for today’s live blog. Thanks for checking it out.