Stocks sold off late in the day with the Dow down 0.19% and the S&P 500 off 0.31%. Investors were not willing to step in and buy stocks after the recent sell off. Cyclical sectors were the laggards today and financials and healthcare outperformed.
Transports lagged badly today. NSC reported a poor quarter and it put the entire transportation sector under pressure.
Investors favored names that have already reported quarterly earnings and are not associated with recent negative macro news. Financials, homebuilders and large healthcare outperformed.
The Fed statement today offered nothing different from the past several statements. The Fed is still doing $85 billion a month in purchases.
Manufacturing PMI moved up to 51.3 from 51.1 in the flash October report. The August FHFA house price index increased 0.7% against consensus expectations of 0.3%. The increases were seen in most areas of the national real estate market.
The recovery in China is moderate. China’s Q3 GDP was in line with expectations posting an increase of 7.4%.
Homebuilders and building products stocks greatly outpaced the overall market today. The ABI index posted its second consecutive reading above 50. The number posted today was 51.6 versus 50.2 last month. New home sales data also was better than expected. Median home prices increased 11.7% year over year.
Source: PFS Group
