Before The Bell
The stock market opened positively yesterday, continuing a large rally from Monday that sent the indices higher. The White House announced that 50% of U.S. adults had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus as of Tuesday, which sent travel-related stocks in the airlines and cruise industries higher. However, the positive momentum did not last long, as economic data showed inflationary pressures across the United States, which caused traders to worry about the Fed possibly raising interest rates sooner than expected. The major averages retraced the earlier gains and then fell slightly below breakeven levels. For the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 82 points; the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite were each down nine points.
Overall, decliners outpaced advancers by a 1.7-to-1.0 ratio yesterday. Energy issues were down the most, hurt by declines in the related commodities. However, consumer discretionary stocks, including some associated with the reopening of the United States economy, were the best performers. U.S. Treasury bond yields were modestly higher, especially those with longer terms, as inflation pressures caused traders to take some profits. Meantime, the CBOE Volatility (VIX) Index rose as traders purchased options protection.
The futures started positively, and the markets trended higher throughout the evening and overnight. By morning, the futures had given back a portion of the early gains, but remain in the green and set the stage for a good start to the trading day.
The economic calendar has few scheduled events on the docket, meaning traders will likely look to breaking developments to determine how the market will perform today. Meantime, the earnings season is nearly complete, with the vast majority of the S&P 500 already reporting results. Still, a few large tech companies and retailers are slated to report quarterly earnings today, which should give further insight into how the consumer is faring and what the outlook for inflation is. Over the next few days, economic data will likely play a much bigger role, as core inflation data is slated for release Friday, along with the final consumer sentiment index for May. Overall, we think that most traders will take a wait-and-see approach to their activity, given the large number of data releases in the coming days, including initial weekly unemployment claims data and the first revision to the March-quarter GDP estimate tomorrow morning.
– John E. Seibert III
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
