Stocks got off to a mixed start this week, with the NASDAQ composite registering its worst day since April. The selloff was led by losses for recent winners, such as NVIDIA (NVDA), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), and Qualcomm (QCOM), which were down 6.7%, 8.7%, and 5.5%, respectively. Looking toward today’s opening bell, the futures for the major indexes are mixed. In overnight trading, the markets in Asia closed mostly higher, but stocks in Europe are trending in the red. Meanwhile, oil prices have moved lower, with West Texas Intermediate down about 0.5%, to around $81.25 a barrel.
The economic calendar is fairly busy beginning mid-week. On Wednesday, the Census Bureau will report on building permits for May. The Street is looking for a small dip in the annualized rate, to 1.386 million, down 54 thousand from the month before. We’ll also get new home sales for last month. Expectations are calling for an increase to 650,000, versus the 634,000 reported in April.
Thursday brings additional data on the housing market with the National Association of Realtors’ report on pending home sales for May. Analysts are calling for a month-over-month increase of around 1.0%, which would be a sizable improvement from the 7.7% drop in April. That same day, we’ll also get the tallies for durable goods orders in May from the Census Bureau. Analyst estimates are pointing to a 0.1% month-over-month decrease, compared to a 0.6% increase the month before. Meanwhile, forecasters are calling for the Department of Labor to report initial jobless claims of around 240,000, up slightly from 238,000 the week before.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, will be Friday’s report on the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE) from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The consensus view is that this key inflation indicator will show a 12-month increase of about 2.6% (matching the average from the first four months of the year), compared to 2.7% in April. The so-called core PCE, which excludes food and energy costs, is also expected to show a 2.6% increase versus a year ago.
Summing up Monday’s moves for the major indexes, the Dow Jones Industrials advanced 260 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P 500 lost 16 points (0.3%) and the NASDAQ slid 192 points (1.1%). – Mario Ferro
At the time of this article’s writing, the author did not have positions in any of the companies mentioned.
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