U.S. Market Indexes Mixed with Focus on Treasuries

Fri Oct 21 2016
Jim Andrews (506 articles)
U.S. Market Indexes Mixed with Focus on Treasuries

U.S. market indexes were mixed on Friday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18145.71 for a loss of -16.64 points or -0.09 percent. The S&P 500 closed at 2141.16 for a loss of -0.18 points or -0.01 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 5257.40 for a gain of 15.57 points or 0.30 percent. The VIX Volatility Index closed at 13.38 for a loss of -0.37 points or -2.69 percent.

Friday’s Market Movers

Third quarter earnings reports have yet to help stocks gain significant momentum and the market’s focus was mainly on Treasury yields Friday. The 10-year Treasury’s yield fell to 1.740 percent on Friday.

Market activity was mostly quiet Friday with only the Baker Hughes Rig Count on the list of leading economic reports. The rig count in North America fell to 696 from 704 in the previous week. Oil prices gained for the day with WTI crude oil up 0.49 percent to $50.88 a barrel and Brent crude up 0.80 percent to $51.79 a barrel.

Stocks trading actively for the day included the following:

Reynolds American

Chesapeake Energy

AT&T

Microsoft

Bank of America

General Electric

Time Warner

PayPal Holdings

Southwestern Energy

Verizon Communications

 In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains and losses for the day:

Gains

Microsoft 4.27

McDonald’s 3.13

Walt Disney 1.09

Losses

Verizon -1.91

IBM -1.23

The Travelers Companies Inc. -1.22

In the broad market consumer discretionary stocks led gains while healthcare stocks led losses. Technology stocks were higher with the S&P 500 technology sector up 0.27 percent. Stocks leading gains in technology for the day included the following:

PayPal 10.25

VeriSign 6.52

Microsoft 4.27

In commodities, gold traded higher as evidenced by the SPDR Gold Trust which reported a gain of 0.09 points or 0.07 percent. The dollar was higher for the day as the U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.33 points or 0.34 percent to 98.66.

Small-Cap Stocks

In small-caps, the Russell 2000 Index closed at 1217.71 for a loss of -2.07 points or -0.17 percent. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 733.89 for a loss of -1.81 points or -0.25 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closed at 7375.09 for a loss of -10.64 points or -0.14 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM Index closed at 8615.35 for a loss of -11.53 points or -0.13 percent.

Other Notable Indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1526.99 for a loss of -0.93 points or -0.06 percent; the S&P 100 Index at 949.73 for a gain of 0.61 points or 0.06 percent; the Russell 3000 Index at 1266.37 for a loss of -0.10 points or -0.01 percent; the Russell 1000 Index at 1186.51 for a gain of 0.10 points or 0.01 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 599.66 for a loss of -1.26 points or -0.21 percent.

Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews is Desk Correspondent for Global Stock, Currencies, Commodities & Bonds Market . He has been reporting about Global Markets for last 5+ years. He is based in New York