The U.S. stock market continues to remain stagnant due to a mix of weak domestic economic data and corporate earnings results for the third quarter. Four Dow Jones components and 45 companies that are included in the S&P 500 index were slated to report earnings today, making today the biggest earnings day of the corporate earnings cycle.
Here's how the stock market settled after trading Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.19% or 5.77 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): -0.11% or 28.42 points
NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ): +0.81% or 66.00 points
Markets gave up initial gains in early trading Thursday, with investors beginning to become wary of riskier trades as the market begins to reflect more negative earnings from some large, globally traded companies. Krishna Memani, vice chairman of investments at Invesco, stated that "the industrial slowdown is continuing, as opposed to bottoming out and slowing down." He went on to say that companies within the NASDAQ are doing quite well in contrast.
In U.S. Economic news, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report Thursday that durable goods orders fell 1.1% in September. When excluding transportation goods, orders fell 0.3% when compared to August. These trends show an ongoing weakness in the industrial sector that has begun to grow during the month of September.
In Global Economic news, IHS Markit said that the service sector activity in Germany fell to its lowest in more than three years in October. German manufacturing PMI did improve slightly to 41.9 in October, from the decade-wort 41.7 in September, though the reading is still way below the growth rate reading to be above the baseline of 50.
In Stock Sector news, sector performance was split down the middle in the midst of corporate earnings. Gainers for the day include Information Technology +1.48%, Utilities +0.39%, Materials +0.37%, Consumer Staples +0.28%, Industrials +0.12% and Consumer Discretionary +0.05%. Losers for the day include Communication Services -0.74%, Health Care -0.60%, Energy -0.43%, Real Estate -0.28%, and Financials -0.04%.
In Commodity news, West Texas Intermediate continues its upward stride, with barrel prices increasing 0.57% to price at $56.20. Brent Crude had a similar increase of 0.83% to make the price per barrel rest at $61.63. Gold also is taking on a slight increase, with prices increasing +0.76%, making the metal cost $1,503.40 per ounce.
- https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-set-to-climb-toward-records-on-busiest-day-of-earnings-season-2019-10-24
- https://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/adv/pdf/durgd.pdf
- https://www.marketwatch.com/story/german-economy-continues-to-struggle-with-manufacturing-troubles-spreading-to-services-2019-10-24