US stocks end in mixed fashion

investors reassess the prospects for Presiden's ambitious economic agenda

U.S. stocks overcame steep losses on Monday, 27 March 2017 but the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 still closed lower as investors reassessed the prospects for President Donald Trump's ambitious economic agenda after a Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare was scrapped last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its longest losing streak since August 2011 with eight straight declines, closing down 45.74 points or 0.2%, at 20,550.98, after overcoming an earlier 184-point deficit. The S&P 500 slid 2.39 points, or 0.1%, to close at 2,341.59, as seven out of 11 sectors finished lower. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 11.64 points, or 0.2%, at 5,840.37, overcoming an earlier 59-point deficit.

 

Telecom and financial shares led decliners, while health-care and materials stocks led advancers. The benchmark index has finished down seven out of the past eight sessions. Earlier in the session, the equity gauge had been down by as many as 22 points.

The blue-chip average was led lower by shares of Chevron and Goldman Sachs.

Last week's health care hiccup fostered some bearish undertones on Monday morning, but investors were largely able to shake off the concerns to start the week unscathed. The Nasdaq settled 0.2% higher while the S&P 500 and the Dow finished with losses of 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

With health care reform in the rear-view mirror, lawmakers will now turn their attention to a major catalyst in the stock market's post-election rally--tax reform.

At the top of the day's sector standings was the health care space as the demise of the American Health Care Act puts President Trump's pledge to lower drug prices into question. The technology, materials and consumer discretionary groups also settled in positive territory. Large-cap tech names like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Intel underpinned the top-weighted tech group's outperformance.

On the flip side, the lightly-weighted real estate and telecom services sectors settled at the bottom of the day's leaderboard while the remaining groups, financials, industrials, energy, consumer staples, and utilities finished with losses between 0.1% and 0.5%.

In the Treasury market, U.S. sovereign debt settled in positive territory in a curve-flattening trade. The 10-yr yield (2.37%) finished four basis points lower while the 2-yr yield (1.25%) closed only one basis point below its unchanged mark.

On Monday, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.5% to 99.151 after trading as low as 98.858, its lowest level in four months. Weakness in the dollar can provide a boost to dollar-denominated commodity prices.

Oil prices finished lower on Monday, 27 March 2017 pressured by another weekly rise in the U.S. oil-rig count and uncertainty over whether OPEC will extend its production cuts into the second half of the year.

May West Texas Intermediate crude fell 24 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $47.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchangegiving back nearly all of th e nearly 0.6% gain it saw on Friday. May Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange in London eased by 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $50.75 a barrel.

Gold futures jumped on Monday, 27 March 2017 to finish at their highest level in a month as demand for assets perceived as risky waned, and the dollar dropped in the wake of GOP leaders' failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. Gold for April delivery rose $7.20, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,255.70 an ounce. Futures prices haven't settled at a level this high since 27 Feb 2017. May silver also gained 36 cents, or 2%, to $18.108 an ounce.

Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday. A handful of reports will be released on Tuesday, including February Advanced International Trade in Goods (consensus -$66.1 billion) and Advanced Wholesale Inventories (consensus 0.2%) at 8:30 ET, January S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (consensus 5.6%) at 9:00 ET, and March Consumer Confidence (consensus 113.3) at 10:00 ET.

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