Daily Market Recap

The S&P 500 closed off by less than 2 points in quiet trading today. The market remains within 1% of its 52-week high. Technology, banks and telecom were underperformers and rails and healthcare outperformed.

Commodities were mostly higher, with precious metals, grains, crude and natural gas all trading ahead of the broad market. Gold traded 0.40% higher and silver traded up by more than 2%.

Banks traded off today the spirited move higher over the past several months. Wells Fargo earnings last Friday were slightly disappointing and there was no earnings news today.

While technology traded lower, Dell traded significantly higher. The computer maker lost roughly a third of its value last year and now the company is considering going private. There are currently discussions with private equity firms about moving to a private company. Several banks have been contacted about financing the transaction.

Transports were one of the best performing groups in the market today. Parcels and rails led the move higher. There was a rumor that UPS may use their excess cash to launch a major share repurchase program. All the major railroad stocks traded higher today.

Healthcare outperformed the market as pharmaceutical and drug distribution stocks advanced. There has been a sustained rotation into the large pharma stocks for the past several weeks.

Chinese stocks continued their sharp advance. The Shanghai Composite moved higher by more than 3%. There is speculation that Beijing could substantially expand the amount of money foreign institutional investors can invest in the country’s capital markets.

Source: PFS Group

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