The S&P 500 rose by 0.20% and the Dow by 0.01%. Today was a rare quiet day during earnings season.
Managed care, banks, and steel stocks outperformed while homebuilders, semiconductors, and rails underperformed. Managed care continued its recent positive move higher. This area benefits from higher interest rates and has seen strong earnings.
Homebuilders underperformed after disappointing existing home sales data. Consumer discretionary stocks traded slightly lower after McDonald’s released disappointing earnings.
Commodities were led by precious metals. Gold rose by more than 3% and silver was higher by 5%. Copper gained 1.3%. Crude lagged the market closing lower by 1.06%.
Existing home sale were lower by 1.2% on a seasonally annually-adjusted rate for the month of June. This number was lower than expected and paled in comparison to the 3.4% increase the prior month. The median price of a home in the US increased 13.5% over the past 12 months.
Financials continued to be a leading sector. Financials again significantly outperformed the broad market. The bank index rose by more than 1%. Both money center and regional banks were in favor today. Asset manager T. Rowe Price broke out to a new high. Discount broker Charles Schwab increased by more than 1.5%.
General Electric had another strong day today after climbing by close to 5% Friday. GE rose by 0.57% today. Emerson announced that order trends continued to improve. This helped the stock move higher by 2.5% and set a positive tone for the sector. Capital equipment stocks were led by Joy Global and Caterpillar.
Managed care led the healthcare sector higher by 0.30%. Hospitals were higher after there were several better than expected earnings reports in the group. Health care distributors were lower and the recent winner, biotechnology, saw some profit taking.
The consumer space lagged today. Retail was weak as restaurants saw some selling after same store sales data was slightly disappointing. McDonald’s was lower by 2.7% after they released earnings prior to the open. Kimberly Clark was weak in the staples area after revenue gains were below expectations.
Source: PFS Group
