Good morning.
Stocks are heading lower in the opening minutes, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials both pulling back from their record closes yesterday.
S&P 500 -0.3%
Dow -0.3%
Nasdaq -0.4%
Russell -0.6%
Casino operator Wynn Resorts /quotes/zigman/88601/delayed /quotes/nls/wynn WYNN is leading the way lower for the S&P 500, last down nearly 4%.
The problem today for casino companies could be Macau reporting disappointing gaming revenue for the month of May.
Our Dow Jones colleagues at Barron’s have a story about it here.
Photo credit: Bloomberg
Monster Beverage /quotes/zigman/8035590/delayed /quotes/nls/mnst MNST and Allegheny Technologies /quotes/zigman/251511/delayed /quotes/nls/ati ATI are two other big losers in the S&P 500 today, last down 2.5% and 3%, respectively.
This morning BMO Capital backed its outperform rating and its $77 price target for Monster, but that isn’t helping the energy drinks maker.
Today’s report on April factory orders came out a few minutes ago and slightly beat expectations, with orders up 0.7% vs. forecasts for 0.6%.
Stocks had been lifting up from their session lows before the report, and they’ve continued to improve since it came out.
S&P 500 -0.1%
Dow -0.1%
Nasdaq +0.1%
Russell 2000 flat
The Nasdaq is outperforming at last check — and bucking the day’s negative trend.
Apple /quotes/zigman/68270/delayed /quotes/nls/aapl AAPL is providing a lift.
MarketWatch’s Ben Pimentel is tracking Apple’s action:
“Shares of Apple rallied early Tuesday, a day after the iPhone maker unveiled new initiatives at its developer conference in San Francisco. Apple rose 1.4% to $637.12, after Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso raised his price target to $725 from $650 who said the company’s software announcements are ‘mostly evolutionary changes that continue to strengthen the Apple ecosystem.’”
Read more about tech stocks here.
Photo credit: Bloomberg
Beyond the data on factory orders, reports on May auto sales are also getting attention today.
GM’s sales rose 13%, while Ford’s increased by 3%.
GM’s /quotes/zigman/1466682/delayed /quotes/nls/gm GM stock was last up 0.1%, while Ford /quotes/zigman/264304/delayed /quotes/nls/f F gained 1.2%.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a gain in April factory orders of 0.6%, but other forecasts were for 0.5%, so the 0.7% rise is a clear beat if you had the latter estimate of 0.5% in mind.
“Factory Orders came in stronger-than-expected at +0.7% MoM in April vs. +0.5% forecast and +1.5% March,” writes Ian Lyngen of CRT Capital Group in emailed comments this morning.
The report is “positive for Q1 GDP revisions which will put Q2 growth on solid footing — although core orders were down in April,” he adds.
“Overall, a constructive release for growth.”
Wow, Quicksilver /quotes/zigman/239314/delayed /quotes/nls/zqk ZQK has been almost cut in half today after its quarterly release.
The stock is down a whopping 44%.
The designer and distributor of clothing, footwear and accessories posted a wider-than-expected loss, reports MarketWatch’s Andria Cheng.
After trading flat to slightly positive, the Nasdaq has slumped back into the red in the last few minutes.
Apple is still up about 1% and providing a lift to the Nasdaq, but that’s not enough to keep it in the green at this point.
S&P 500 -0.2%
Dow -0.3%
Nasdaq -0.2%
Russell 2000 -0.5%
Rob Stein, CEO of Astor Investment Management, says that stocks and long-term bonds are most likely priced where they should be.
“The economy is growing very slowly, but still growing. The fact that the economy contracted in the first quarter does not matter at this point because it is not the beginning of the recession, as there is enough evidence of a snap-back in the second quarter.
The 10-year yield at 2.5% is not surprising given that the inflation is at 1%, unemployment in 6s and stalled growth in the first quarter.
In fact, we fear slipping into deflationary environment more than inflation rising.”
Technology to help with aging in place. And two suitors continue to woo Hillshire. MarketWatch’s Ann Cates reports.
Marketwatch’s Mark Hulbert says a June swoon in the stock market seems likely because investor sentiment has sunk over the past month. Photo: Getty Images.
Treasury prices fell for a fourth consecutive session on Tuesday, sending benchmark yields to their highest in over a week, as interest rates continued to retrace a sharp drop, writes Ben Eisen.
The 10-year note yield, which rises as prices fall, was up 3.5 basis points on the day at 2.568%. That puts the benchmark yield on track to rise 13 basis points over the most recent four sessions.
Getty Images
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts /quotes/zigman/258030/delayed /quotes/nls/kkd KKD had a meltdown after it cut its fiscal year outlook while Hillshire Brands /quotes/zigman/10406668/delayed /quotes/nls/hsh HSH surged 9% after Pilgrim’s Pride /quotes/zigman/13509380/delayed /quotes/nls/ppc PPC raised its offer for the company to outbid Tyson Foods /quotes/zigman/244186/delayed /quotes/nls/tsn TSN .
Check out Movers & Shakers for a snapshot of big stock action.
Getty Images
Two pieces of interesting news today for would-be homebuyers: 1) home-price growth slowed to a 14-month low and 2) the size of new homes is expanding.
Home prices rose 2.1% in April but that was the slowest in over a year. Meanwhile, median floor area of new single-family homes sold in the U.S. last year rose 4% to almost 2,500 square feet. In 2011, the median floor area was 1,700 square feet.
Home-builder stocks were mostly higher with PulteGroup /quotes/zigman/129784/delayed /quotes/nls/phm PHM adding 0.5% and Lennar /quotes/zigman/232035/delayed /quotes/nls/len LEN edging up 0.2%.
Bloomberg
The Securities Exchange Commission is charging Erik Voorhees with offering shares in two bitcoin-related websites without proper registration. Voorhees allegedly published prospectuses and asked investors to buy shares in the two websites, SatoshiDICE and FeedZeBirds, with bitcoin which netted him more than $15,000.
Stocks have moved off their session lows but still in negative territory.
S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX -5 points
Dow /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA -22 points
Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP -1 point
Jordan Waxman, managing director at HighTower HSW Advisors says there’s no other choice, with other asset classes “unattractive at this point.” He sees markets grinding slowly higher through the summer.
While broader markets are generally lower, there a few bright spots: home builders, retailers, utilities and energy sector stocks are trading higher.
SPDR S&P Homebuilder ETF +0.1%
SPDR S&P Retail ETF +0.3%
S&P 500 Utilities sector +0.4%
S&P 500 Energy sector +0.4%
Shares in Apple Inc are up 1.4% after Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso raised his price target to $725 from $650 who said the company’s software announcements are “mostly evolutionary changes that continue to strengthen the Apple ecosystem.”
The company unveiled new initiatives at its developer conference in San Francisco on Monday. Also read: Apple rolls out a more combative CEO
Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in a research note said stock and bond markets agree.
Stocks have been moving higher lately, seemingly suggesting that growth is improving; yet at the same time bond yields have been moving lower, implying growth prospects are deteriorating. The big debate between which of these two multi-trillion dollar markets is right has been raging among investors. But the truth is that there is no debate here — at least not yet.
Kleintop illustrates it with the chart above:
Over the five years since the recession ended in June 2009, modest declines in bond yields in the range of 0 – 50 bps commonly occurred along with modest gains of 0 – 10% for stocks. The consistency with the current behavior of these markets is evident — the pace of appreciation in the S&P 500 Index has slowed this year to about 4% in concert with the modest decline in bond yields.
Shares continue to hold their own, with the Nasdaq Composite stubbornly ceding ground by embarking on a sideways drift over the past few days. This after being a winner in seven of the previous nine sessions, writes Kevin Marder, columnist and co-founder of MarketWatch.
For more, read: Low-volume Nasdaq rally is not a lone.
Oil futures settled slightly higher on Tuesday, rebounding from their lowest settlement level in two weeks with traders finding little reason to make any big moves ahead of weekly data on petroleum supplies, write Myra Saefond and Victor Reklaitis.
Analysts at Commerzbank Commodity Research said “downside risks are increasing,” citing rising Iraqi oil exports, as well as a jump in speculative long positions.
“Extreme positioning often marks a turning point in terms of price performance,” the Commerzbank analysts said in a note Tuesday.
With about 15 minutes before the market close, stocks are still in the red.
The S&P 500 is doing its best to finish with gains or flat – it’s off less than a point.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 17 points, Nasdaq off 3 points.
Federal Reserve officials, looking out at mostly calm financial markets, are starting to wonder whether tranquility itself is something to worry about, writes WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath.
So far this year the U.S. economy has suffered a brief economic contraction, the Fed has begun winding down a major bond-purchase program meant to spur growth, the Obama administration has clashed with Russia over its annexation of Crimea, China’s economy has slowed and the Middle East has become a cauldron of civil strife.
Yet, looking at Wall Street stock and bond trader screens, the world looks like a model of stability.
Today’s trading on Wall Street was very tight the S&P 500 traded in 5 point range throughout the day.
U.S. stocks close lower, pulling back from records
S&P 500, Nasdaq both fall less than 0.1%
Dow industrials drop just over 0.1%
After an entire trading day, the U.S. stock market ended just about where it started, with the three main indexes edging slightly lower.
For the S&P 500 and Dow, Tuesday’s dip meant the end of three-day winning streaks.
In after-hours action, Ascena Retail /quotes/zigman/2380068/delayed /quotes/nls/asna ASNA is losing ground after its quarterly earnings report.
Read more about late movers in today’s After Hours column, which will be available shortly here.
That’s a wrap for today’s live blog. Thanks for checking it out.