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Wednesday, 4 Mar 2015 - AMC

Market Summary

from Briefing.com

Industry Watch

Strong:  Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financials, Health Care, Utilities
Weak:  Energy, Materials, Industrials, Technology

Market Moving Factors  
  • China lowers 2015 growth forecast to 7.0% from 7.5% in 2014
  • Biotechnology outperforms after AbbVie (ABBV) agrees to acquire Pharmacyclics (PCYC)
  • Dollar Index extends 2015 gain
[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market registered its second consecutive retreat on Wednesday with the S&P 500 losing 0.4%. The benchmark index managed to cut its loss in half by the closing bell while the Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%) outperformed. The tech-heavy Nasdaq remains higher by 0.1% week-to-date while the S&P 500 is down 0.3% since the end of last week.

For the second day in a row, the market opened amid broad pressure, but heavily-weighted health care and technology sectors hit their lows during the opening hour and climbed off those lows into the afternoon. The health care sector (+0.4%) registered a modest gain while technology (-0.3%) finished ahead of most other cyclical sectors.

Biotechnology contributed to the outperformance of the health care sector with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 340.09, +2.17) climbing 0.6%. In addition, the high-beta group helped the Nasdaq stay ahead of the broader market while chipmakers also displayed relative strength with the PHLX Semiconductor Index shedding 0.1%. Meanwhile, large cap components of the tech sector ended on a mixed note. Apple (AAPL 128.54, -0.82) lost 0.6% while Facebook (FB 80.90, +1.30) added 1.6%.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, energy (-0.2%) settled among the outperformers despite a late-morning slide to lows after the EIA storage report showed that crude inventories increased by 10.3 million barrels from the prior week. Like the sector, crude oil fell to lows on the news, but came back roaring to end the pit session higher by 1.9% at $51.50/bbl.

Also of note, the consumer discretionary sector (-0.6%) lagged throughout the session with Lumber Liquidators (LL 35.64, -5.14) tumbling 12.6% after the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation took interest in the company following reports it imported laminate flooring containing significant amounts of formaldehyde.

Over on the countercyclical side, the health care sector represented the lone outperformer while consumer staples (-0.8%), telecom services (-1.2%), and utilities (-0.6%) lagged throughout the trading day.

Treasuries notched their highs in the morning, but surrendered those gains in the early going, and spent the afternoon near the unchanged level. The 10-yr note ended flat with its yield at 2.12%.

Today's participation was in-line with recent trends as roughly 705 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data included ADP Employment, ISM Services, and MBA Mortgage Index:
  • The ADP National Employment Report revealed that employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose by 212K in February while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase of 220K 
    • The January reading was revised up to 250,000 from 213,000 
  • The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index increased to 56.9 in February from 56.7 while the Briefing.com consensus expected a drop to 56.5 
    • The improvement in the headline index comes despite weakness in production and orders. The Business Activities/Production Index fell to 59.4 from 61.5 while the New Orders Index declined to 56.7 from 59.5 
  • The weekly MBA Mortgage Index ticked up 0.1% to follow last week's 3.5% decline 
Tomorrow, the Challenger Job Cuts report for February will be released at 7:30 ET while weekly Initial Claims (Briefing.com consensus 295K) and Q4 Productivity (consensus -2.3%)/Unit Labor Costs data (consensus 2.9%) will be released at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the January Factory Orders report (consensus 0.6%).
  • Nasdaq Composite +4.9% YTD 
  • Russell 2000 +2.3% YTD 
  • S&P 500 +1.9% YTD 
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.5% YTD
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Economic Data

from Briefing.com

Date ET Release For Actual Briefing.com Forecast Briefing.com Consensus Prior Revised From
Mar 04 07:00 MBA Mortgage Index 02/28 0.1% NA NA -3.5%
Mar 04 08:15 ADP Employment Change Feb 212K 230K 220K 250K 213K
Mar 04 10:00 ISM Services Feb 56.9 55.5 56.5 56.7
Mar 04 10:30 Crude Inventories 02/28 10.303M NA NA 8.427M
Mar 04 14:00 Fed's Beige Book Mar NA NA NA

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Market Internal

NYSE :
Lower than average volume @ 723.8M vs 813.44M
Decliners outpaced Advancers(adv/dec): 1176M/1880M
New highs outpaced low(high/low): 98/37

NASDAQ :
Lower than average volume @ 1810.9M vs 1818.33M
Decliners outpaced Advancers(adv/dec): 1131M/1599M
New highs outpaced low(high/low): 81/55

Decliners outpaced Advancers by 1.51 to 1 on lower volumes 2534.7 ( -3.69%) than avg 2632 (-0.42%)

VOLATILITY S&P500 (VIX) :
14.23 0.37(2.67%)

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Bonds, Currencies & Commodities

from Briefing.com

Bonds


Treasuries End Slightly Higher:
  • The Treasury market's status as a safe haven prevailed today, as the S&P 500 fell as much as 33 points from its all-time high at its low of the day and put a bid in government bonds.  The dominant trend of the week in Treasuries has been a negative one, but the stock selling helped the bulls get a breather
  • Yield check:
    • 2-yr: -3 bps to 0.65%
    • 5-yr: -1 bp to 1.60%
    • 10-yr: unch at 2.12%
    • 30-yr: unch at 2.72%
  • The curve was slightly steeper at the end of the day, which has been the trend for the past several trading days
  • Data Releases:
    • February Services ISM came out at 56.9, beating the Briefing.com consensus of 56.5, and higher than the January number (56.7)
      • The improvement in the headline number came despite weakness in production and orders and the Employment Index increased to 56.4 from 51.6 in January
    • Beige Book:
      • There was little new information in this release. The Fed said that a stronger dollar and cheaper oil was depressing activity in several sectors
    • February's ADP Employment Change was 212K, versus a Briefing.com consensus of 220K. The January figure was revised up to 250K from 213K
  • Comments Out of Fed:
    • Chicago Fed President Evans confirmed that he is a dove
      • He said that the Fed shouldn't raise rates this year, and that the risks to early tightening outweighed the risks to hesitating
  • Commodities:
    • WTI Crude rallied $1.21  (+2.4%  ) to $51.73/bbl
      • The weekly crude oil inventories number was 10.3M, much higher than expectations. Rallying in the face of this data must have been discouraging for the bears, although crude has done much more chopping than trending as of late, and picking breakouts has been very expensive
    • Copper finished unchanged at $2.66/lb.
    • Gold fell $5.50 (-0.46%) to $1198.90/troy oz.

Currencies

US Dollar Index Soars:
  • The Intercontinental Exchange's U.S. Dollar Index traded levels not seen since 2003, as the Euro, which makes up 57% of the index, traded 12-year lows against the USD of $1.1061
    • The ECB will meet on Thursday and release details of its quantitative easing program, announced on January 22
      • The current program is set to expire in September 2016, but the central bank has also promised to continue asset purchases until inflation nears 2%
      • Market observers will be listening closely for the conditions that would cause the ECB to adjust its program
  • $/Yen remained mostly unchanged, rising 5 pips (+0.05%) to 119.71
  • The U.K.'s February Services PMI missed expectations at 56.7 versus 57.2 in January, and the GBP/USD pair fell 103 pips  (-0.67%) to $1.5259  
  • The Canadian loonie rallied after the Bank of Canada decided to hold its main policy rate steady at 0.75%. USD/CAD was down 71 pips (-0.57%) to 1.2420
  • NZD/USD: -33 pips (-0.34%) to $0.7586
  • AUD/USD: -3 pips (-0.04%) to $0.7814

Commodities

WTI Crude Oil Ends Almost $1 Higher, Closing Above $51/Barrel:
  • Oil prices displayed some volatility today, but ultimately closed higher
  • Oil showed some strength following Saudi price increase on Asian and U.S. oil exports, but reversed lower following the weekly EIA storage data
  • However, that didn't hold and crude began to rally, finishing today's session $0.96 higher at $51.50/barrel
  • In other energy , Apr natural gas rose $0.06 to $2.77/MMBtu
  • Metals weren't very interesting today. Precious metals declined, while copper ended flat
  • Apr gold fell $3.00 to $1201.20/oz, while May silver lost $0.12 to $16.17/oz
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Preview: Thursday, 5 Mar 2015

Economic Data

Date ET Release For Actual Briefing.com Forecast Briefing.com Consensus Prior Revised From
Mar 05 07:30 Challenger Job Cuts Feb
NA NA 17.6%
Mar 05 08:30 Initial Claims 02/28
300K 295K 313K
Mar 05 08:30 Continuing Claims 02/21
2400K 2404K 2404K 2401K
Mar 05 08:30 Productivity-Rev. Q4
-1.6% -2.3% -1.8%
Mar 05 08:30 Unit Labor Costs -Rev Q4
2.5% 2.9% 2.7%
Mar 05 10:00 Factory Orders Jan
-0.1% 0.6% -3.5% -3.4%
Mar 05 10:30 Natural Gas Inventories 02/28 NA NA -219 bcf

Other Events of Interest

Earnings



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