Daily Market Recap

The S&P 500 declined by 0.37% and the Dow was off by 0.15%. The S&P declined for the first time since May 1st. Rumors about a Fed announcement of when QE efforts would end led to a fairly soft sell off late in today’s trading. The market rallied slightly and closed off its lows. Homebuilders, semiconductors, and media were the best performers today and telecom, utilities, and transports lagged the market.

Homebuilders rallied after positive comments were made at an influential hedge fund conference. AMC Networks reported stronger than expected ad revenues and led the media group. Semiconductors rose for the sixth straight day. Telecom and utility stocks, leaders for the year, saw profit taking today. Utilities sold off sharply.

Commodities were mixed. Precious metals, copper, and crude traded lower while grains and natural gas traded ahead of the market. Gold and silver each traded lower by more than 1%, but closed well off their respective lows. Crude was lower by 0.75%.

Financials were weak today after outperforming for the past several days. Banks were lower by 0.70% but did not give back all of yesterday’s gains. Discount brokers released strong trading data. The major investment bankers/brokers were lower on the day.

Technology slightly lagged the overall markets. Negative comments from a prominent short seller put PC related stocks under pressure. Semiconductors were the leading industry group within the sector.

Industrials traded slightly higher. MMM was a standout, trading higher by more than 2% for much of the day. It gave back some of its gains as the market weakened late in the day, but closed higher by 1.6%. Aerospace stocks performed well ahead of the broad market averages. Raytheon again hit a new high today.

After trading higher for five straight days the transports took a breather today. Transports sold off by 1% as investors took profits at all-time highs in many transport names. Truckers, YRC Worldwide and Arkansas Best, surged higher on the news that YRC made a preliminary proposal to buy Arkansas Best.

Healthcare outperformed the S&P as medical technology and biotech stocks traded higher. Drug store stocks and managed care names lagged after leading the space earlier in the week.

Tesla and Green Mountain Coffee were standouts in the consumer discretionary space. Tesla posted better than expected quarterly earnings after the close yesterday. Consumer Reports also gave their Model S a score of 99 out of 100 in a report released today. Tesla ended up 24.4%. Green Mountain rose by better than 27% in response to earnings that greatly exceeded expectations and the announcement that Starbucks will wll add the K-Cup brand in a five-year agreement with Green Mountain.

Source: PFS Group

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