YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market spent the session chopping
along listlessly in low volume trade before booking a flat finish. The
lackluster action precedes the latest FOMC Policy Statement tomorrow.
Mixed action abroad and an absence of consequential headlines left
stocks to open with modest losses. A lack of leadership then left the broad
market to muddle along in the early going.
The highly influential Financial sector
was an early source of weakness. Weighed down by diversified and regional banks
it fell to a loss of about 1% before support was secured. Financials were able
to fight off some of the selling to slash losses, but they still ended the day
down 0.3%.
Tech stocks, collectively the largest sector by market weight,
stayed close to the flat line for most of the session, but were able to book a
0.2% gain. That said, semiconductor plays traded with
weakness, resulting in a 1.0% loss for the
Defensive in nature, Utilities (+1.1%), Telecom (+0.5%), and
Consumer Staples (+0.5%) all benefited from a steady bid, but their lack of
market weight did little to lift the broad market.
The dollar spent the day trailing a basket of major foreign
currencies. By session's end it was off by about 0.2%.
Treasuries had attracted a solid bid in the early going, but
support faded as trade progressed. That left the benchmark 10-year Note to
drift down to the flat line by session's end. Results from an auction of 3-year
Notes had little bearing on intraday action -- the offering drew a bid-to-cover
ratio of 3.44, dollar demand of $110.1 billion, and an indirect bidder
participation rate of 34.6%. For comparison, the an average of the past six
auctions results in a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.42, dollar demand of $109.4
billion, and an indirect bidder rate of 36.2%.
Without any announcements or headlines of great consequence many
traders saw little reason to take a position ahead of the FOMC Policy Statement
tomorrow afternoon. The apathetic attitude resulted in abysmally low share
volume, which failed to surpass 650 million shares on the NYSE.
Persistent weakness in the commodity complex left the CRB Index to
suffer a 0.5% loss. Neither energy nor precious metals were able to escape the
selling.
Although they settled above their session lows, oil prices still logged
a 1.0% loss at $106.32 per barrel. Natural gas continued to contend with
sellers, resulting in a 2.2% loss at $2.27 per MMBtu.
Silver prices slid 2.1% to settle pit trade at $33.50 per ounce.
Gold wasn't quite as weak, but prices still settled at $1700.20 per ounce for a
0.6% loss.
Advancing Sectors:
Utilities +1.1%, Consumer Staples +0.5%, Telecom +0.5%, Tech +0.2%, Industrials
+0.1%
Declining Sectors:
Health Care -0.1%, Financials -0.3%, Consumer Discretionary -0.3%, Energy
-0.3%, Materials -0.6%DJ30 +37.69 NASDAQ -4.68 NQ100 +0.00% R2K -0.4% SP400
-0.4% SP500 +0.22 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1088/1.33
bln/1432 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1368/643 mln/1629