The upside motivation yesterday was that two DOW components, retailers HD (new all-time high) and WMT beat their earnings forecast. This moved the index higher along with recently beaten-down M doing better after its report. On the downside, HSBC sold off on its report and both UL and KHC gave back all of last Friday’s gains as their potential merger has been called off.
Bond yields were actually down with the 10-year at 2.42% despite the fact that the dollar strengthened. Some Fed governors made noises about the possibility of a March rate hike. This helped the dollar gain and sent the Euro down to 105.5 and the Japanese yen to 113.45. Gold was lower on the dollar strength but crude oil was over $54 a barrel…its highest level in 20 months. Breadth numbers were strong at around a 2 to 1 upside ratio.
With three hours into today’s session, the markets are mixed. The DOW currently up 19 points, while the S&P is lower by 2 and the NASDAQ is down 37 points.
Donald M. Selkin
These are excerpts from Don Selkin’s Daily Market notes, abbreviated and updated with permission from the author. Don Selkin is the Chief Market Strategist at Newbridge Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC and provides the Fair Value analysis for CNBC each morning. The commentary provided in this Market Letter is intended to provide our customers with timely market analysis and should not be considered a research report. This Market Letter may contain, and is limited to: Discussions of broad based indices; Commentaries on economic, political or market conditions; Technical analyses concerning the demand and supply for a sector, index or industry based in trading volume and price; Statistical summaries of multiple companies’ financial data, including listings of current ratings; and, Recommendations regarding increasing or decreasing holdings in particular industries or securities. This Market Letter does not make a financial or investment recommendation or otherwise promotes a product or service of the firm. This Market Letter contains only news, facts, and commentary on information previously reported from a news source believed to be accurate and reliable by the author. These news sources include the following: Bloomberg Financial, Reuters, and the Associated Press.