Company specific news was light today as the Federal Reserve controlled the headlines. This afternoon Janet Yellen announced that rates would stay unchanged amid concerns about Brexit and the labor markets. The news caused some short term volatility but, ultimately the markets finished lower on the day.
The Dow 30 lost 22 (-0.13%), the S&P 500 closed down 3 (-0.17%) and the Nasdaq 100 lost 8 (-0.18%).
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) popped 1.11% today after BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on the stock, giving it an "Outperform" rating and a price target of $98. Shares have held near 52 week highs since the earnings beat back on May 19th.
Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB) bounced 2.40% today after headlines reported that Sumner Redstone's daughter is discussing selling its Paramount Pictures holding to Alibaba (NASDAQ: BABA). Volume was average today indicating minimal short covering.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) underperformed the markets today (-1.07%) after being downgraded to "Neutral" from "Buy" at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). The firm cited risk/reward in the stock tilting to the downside and potentially decelerating earnings growth through fiscal year 2018. Despite this news, Cisco remains just off 2016 highs.
Lastly, popular gold mining ETF (NYSE: GDX) soared 3.87% today as the US dollar pulled back (NYSE: UUP), and physical gold (NYSE: GLD) ran all the way back to its 2016 high. Volume was well above average in the GDX which is up almost 100% since the start of the year.