Today, the market decided that this was a time to be negative. The DOW declined to as much 100 points in the early going and wound up losing 138 points by the closing bell. The S&P 500 dropped 15 and the NASDAQ fell 31 points.
The DOW was dragged down by the energy components CVX and XOM, which have been laggards this year. The financials gave it up as well despite the decent earnings from JPM. The former high-flying technology leaders piled into the loss column like AMZN, NVDA and PCLN. A few positive stocks bucking the trend today included TSLA, RTN, NOC, and DIS.
Breadth numbers were negative at a 1 to 2 downside ratio. The VIX perhaps has seen a top despite these large declines. It closed up another 1.2% today at 15.96.
Bond yields were lower again with the 10-year Treasury note now down to 2.23%. This is its lowest level since November. Gold gained 10 today to close at $1,288 per ounce. It’s the old flight to quality pattern at work once again. Crude oil started higher and finished at $53.50 a barrel. Meanwhile the currencies, which went through large gyrations last night were fairly unchanged. The Euro managed a fractional gain to 1.0615 and the Japanese yen did the same with a close of 109.13.
Next week we will see a large number of earnings reports for the first-quarter. These will be listed in Monday’s notes. Two weeks from now we will really see the largest number of companies reporting.
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 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.