U.S. Market Indexes Mixed as Stock Gains Ease
U.S. market indexes were mixed on Tuesday as valuation gains eased slightly. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new high at 18559.01. The Dow gained 25.96 points for an increase of 0.14 percent. The S&P 500 was lower for the day at 2163.78 for a loss of -3.11 points or -0.14 percent. The Nasdaq was lower at 5036.37 for a loss of -19.41 points or -0.38 percent. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 12.33 for a loss of -0.11 points or -0.88 percent.
Source: Google Finance.
Tuesday’s Market Movers
On the economic calendar Tuesday was only one leading economic report, Housing Starts. The Housing Starts report showed an increase of 4.8 percent for June. Housing starts were 1.189 million SAAR which was at the higher end of the consensus range for the month and beat the consensus average of 1.170 million. Housing starts in June improved from a SAAR of 1.164 million in May.
Housing starts were another sign of good health for the economy however the main focus for the day was on earnings. With second quarter earnings in full swing, a long list of companies reported earnings on Tuesday including the following:
TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, Belden Inc., Genuine Parts Company, W.W. Grainger, Inc., Hanmi Financial Corporation, Kuehne & Nagel International AG, Kone Oyj, Kansas City Southern, Lockheed Martin, Neogen Corporation, Prologis, Telenor ASA, Tile Shop Holdings, Inc., UbiSoft Entertainment Inc., Wipro Limited, Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, AG, Cintas Corporation, Discover Financial Services, Exponent, Inc., First Midwest Bancorp, Inc., Fulton Financial Corporation, Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc., Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc.., Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., Intuitive Surgical, Inc., LegacyTexas Financial Group Inc., Manhattan Associates, Inc., Navient Corp., Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc., Pzena Investment Management, Inc., RLI Corp., Renasant Corporation, United Financial Bancorp, Inc., United Community Financial Corp., WesBanco and Wintrust Financial Corporation.
In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains in the Index for the day.
McDonald’s Corp 2.24
Johnson & Johnson 1.74
UnitedHealth Group Inc 1.37
Boeing Co 0.96
Visa Inc Class A 0.61
Top sectors for the broad market were financial, industrial and consumer staples. In technology, stocks traded mostly flat with gains led by the following:
Discovery Communications Inc Class B 1.32
JD.com Inc ADR 1.22
Monster Beverage Corp 1.1
PayPal Holdings Inc 1.1
Facebook Inc A 1.05
In commodities, gold traded higher as evidenced by the SPDR Gold Trust which reported a gain of +0.14 points or 0.11 percent. The dollar was higher for the day with the US Dollar Index at 97.06 for a gain of 0.51 points or 0.53 percent.
Small-Cap Stocks
In small-cap stocks, the Russell 2000 was lower at 1200.04 for a loss of -7.87 points or -0.65 percent. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index was lower at 736.77 for a loss of -4.54 points or -0.61 percent. The DJ Small-Cap Growth TSM Index was lower at 7307.14 for a loss of -45.01 points or -0.61 percent. The DJ Small-Cap Value TSM Index was lower at 8657.87 for a loss of -24.28 points or -0.28 percent.
Other Notable Indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index which closed at 1,455.07 for a loss of -14.66 points or -1.00 percent; the Russell 3000 which closed at 1,214.51 for a loss of -12.00 points or -0.98 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index which closed at 587.68 for a loss of -2.94 points or -0.50 percent.
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1541.64 for a loss of -3.43 points or -0.22 percent; the S&P 100 Index at 958.05 for a loss of -0.66 points or -0.07 percent; the Russell 3000 Index at 1275.46 for a loss of -2.85 points or -0.22 percent; and the DJ U.S. Select Dividend Index closing at 623.40 for a loss of -1.41 points or -0.23 percent.
