Industrial and telecom sectors lead the rally
US stock market ended the pre-holiday affair on a flat note on Wednesday, 23 November 2016 despite a deluge of economic data. Dow industrials and the S&P 500 notched a third straight record close on Wednesday, boosted in part by industrials, while the Nasdaq lagged behind in trading ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 59.31 points, or 0.3%, to close at 19,083.18, after hitting an intraday record of 19,083.76. The S&P 500 which had been in negative territory for most of the session, advanced 1.78 points, or less than 0.1%, to finish at a record 2,204.72, its session high, led by 0.8% gains in both the industrials and telecom sectors. It's the third session in a row both the Dow and the S&P 500 have turned in record closes. Bucking the positive tone, the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 5.67 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 5,380.68, pressured by a drop in biotech stocks.
The major averages diverged at the start of the session as the heavily-weighted technology and health care spaces slipped down the sector leaderboard.
Stocks barely budged after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its November meeting, but the Dow gradually skewed upward and the S&P 500 swung to a slight gain heading in to the close. The Fed minutes showed that policy makers agreed an interest-rate increase may be appropriate relatively soon.
Today's economic data included the weekly MBA Mortgage Index, weekly initial claims, Durable Orders for October, the FHFA Housing Price Index for September, New Home Sales for October, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey for November. The MBA Mortgage Index indicated that mortgage applications rose by 5.5% in the week ending 19 November 2016. This followed a 9.2% decline in the prior week.
Initial jobless claims increased by 18,000 for the week ending 19 November to 251,000 (consensus 243,000). Continuing claims for the week ending 12 November increased by 66,000 to 2.043 million. Durable orders for October surged past estimates, jumping 4.8% (consensus 1.1%), thanks to a 12.0% spike in transportation orders. Excluding transportation, durable orders increased 1.0% in October (consensus 0.3%) on top of an unrevised 0.2% increase in September.
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The FHFA Housing Price Index for September rose 0.6%, which followed an increase of 0.7% in August. Sales of new single-family home sales declined 1.9% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000 from a revised September rate of 574,000 (from 593,000). The October reading was lower than the consensus estimate of 587,000.
Separately, the final reading of the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey for November increased to 93.8 (consensus 91.6) from the preliminary reading of 91.6. The sentiment index jumped 8.2 points after the election, leaving the index 6.6 points above its level from October.
Heavy machinery names outperformed in the industrial sector. The group led after Deere topped consensus estimates for the fourth quarter and issued upbeat sales guidance for the first quarter and full-year 2017. Peer and Dow component Caterpillar finished at the top of the price-weighted average. The broader sector has gained 8.7% so far this month.
In the technology space, large cap tech names underperformed. Microsoft and Alphabet finished lower by 1.0% apiece. Meanwhile, HP tumbled 6.8% after issuing cautious first-quarter guidance. However, the company did report in-line results for the fourth quarter.
Oil prices fell slightly, settling down 0.2% at $47.96 a barrel, on the day after U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration showed a rise in stockpiles, a negative sign for demand. However, crude prices have been buffeted ahead of next week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Gold prices settled down 1.8% at $1,189.30 an ounce, hurt by the rise in the dollar.
Treasuries ended on a broadly lower note as yields jumped across the curve. The yield on the 2-yr note finished up four basis points at 1.13% while the yield on the benchmark 10-yr note also rose four basis points to 2.36%.
Today's trading volume was below the recent average of one billion as fewer than 808 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Tomorrow, bond and equity markets will be closed for Thanksgiving while Friday's session will end at 13:00 ET. Two pieces of economic data will be released Friday with October International Trade in Goods and October Advance Wholesale Inventories (consensus +0.2%) each crossing the wires at 8:30 ET.
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