The markets were mixed most of the day today as investors look for more news to trade on. After being up 9 of the last 10 days, investors are looking for some catalyst to continue buying. Earnings reports could be just the ticket as earnings season gets underway.
The Dow 30 was up 26 today, the S&P 500 traded perfectly flat on the day, while the Nasdaq 100 was hurt (down 17) by biotech and weakness in some heavily weighted names such as Starbuks (NASDAQ: SBUX), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
The Biotech Sector ETF (NYSE: IBB) lost 1.75% with some headline news coming out affecting troubled pharma stock Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) which lost 6.89%. Teva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TEVA) also made headlines today, adding 3.83% after raising its second-quarter guidance. Perhaps, more importantly the company also signed an agreement to extend the contract closing period on its acquisition of Allergan's (NYSE: AGN) generic division. The company says that the deal is now scheduled to close by October 26, 2016.
Over to the retail space, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) was unable to finish with a gain today despite reporting that "Prime Day" orders grew by 60.0% worldwide and by more than 50.0% in the United States. The company claimed it was by far the most successful "Prime Day" yet. This news is not attracting new investors today though as shares were lower by 0.75%.
Crude oil saw a decline over 3% today as a weekly inventory report showed notable expansion in the amount of oil in storage. This didn't help the oil stocks today, but the weakness was limited. Exxon (NYSE: XOM) was roughly flat on the news (0.09%), while Marathon Partoleum (NYSE: MPC) sold off more aggressively, down 1.49%. More oil related news is scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Lastly, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) sold off 1.74% today, erasing all of yesterdays gains as the coffee company was downgraded to "Mixed" from "Positive" at OTR Global. Earnings are scheduled for July 21st.