It was a very quiet day in the markets after the Dow closed at an all-time high yesterday. The S&P 500 closed higher by 0.11% and the Dow rose by 0.30%. Banks, managed care stocks and computer hardware names were outperformers. Railroads, semiconductors and retailers were underperformers.
The Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, and the ECB are due to make announcements tomorrow regarding interest rates. All are expected to leave rates unchanged. Some have taken the stance that a failure of the ECB to actually lower rates will be viewed as a negative.
The House passed legislation today that would keep most of the government funded through the end of the fiscal year in September. The Senate is expected to do the same thing next week. The action of the markets over the past week makes it clear that this has been largely discounted by the market already.
Commodities were mixed today. Gold traded higher by close to 0.50% and silver traded higher by better than 1.25%. Crude oil sold off, closing down by 0.41% to close at $90.45/barrel. Grains, copper and natural gas all traded lower.
The ADP employment report shows private payrolls increased by 198,000 in February. The BLS report on private payrolls will be released on Friday.
Financials outperformed the broader market. Bank of America closed higher by more than 3%. Again, leadership was found in the large money center banks, insurers and life insurers.
Industrials outpaced the market led by late stage names like General Electric and Honeywell. Honeywell reiterated growth targets for this year and next year today. Capital equipment names were a laggard in the group with negative analyst commentary on the space.
Homebuilders, except Hovnanian which was down over 3%, outperformed the market. Continued improvement in jobs related data had a positive impact on the industry today. The names fell out of favor a few weeks ago and have bounced back sharply over the past week.
Source: PFS Group
