YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Trade this week started on a weak note with
the stock market falling more than 1% amid concerns about the implications of
continued political impasse in
Despite broad market weakness on Monday, Groupon (GRPN 11.58, -0.83)
soared ahead of its quarterly report then extended its move into Tuesday on the
back of better-than-expected bottom line results.
Sentiment on Tuesday soured as financial media discussed the
outflow of deposits among
Domestic data did little to support the case for buying as both
total retail sales and retail sales less autos increased during April by 0.1%,
which is half of what had been widely expected. On par with what had been
projected, overall CPI was flat from the prior month, while core CPI increased
by 0.2%.
However, the
Better-than-expected earnings from both Home
Depot (HD 47.05, +0.03) and TJX Co's (TJX 40.06, -0.88) were in the mix, but neither
influenced broad market action.
By midweek stocks were trying to trade higher, but sellers
continued to show their control.
At an annualized rate of 715,000, building permits were generally
on par with what had been expected, but news that housing starts in April
improved more than expected to an annualized rate of 717,000 from an upwardly
revised rate of 699,000 in the prior month helped set a positive tone.
Industrial production also proved impressive by increasing in April by 1.1%,
which is more than double the 0.5% increase that had been broadly expected.
Select retailers were in focus on Wednesday as JC Penney (JCP 26.29, +0.35), Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF 26.29,
+0.35), and Target (TGT
55.46, +0.65) reported earnings results. Shares of the two former stocks fell
precipitously. Deere
(DE 73.19, +0.22) was out with its latest quarterly report, which featured a
better-than-expected bottom line, but the stock also suffered a negative
response.
Minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting failed to offer any new
insight into the mindset of monetary policy makers. They did note that even
though bank credit slowed in March, it still expanded at a solid pace for the
first quarter. Increased financial strains within the euro area were also
noted.
Europe remained on the minds of market participants on Thursday as
Data ranged from unsurprising to disappointing as the latest
initial jobless claims tally of 370,000 was unchanged from the prior week and
on par with what had been widely expected. Meanwhile, the
Sears Holding
(SHLD 52.23, -0.19) announced a spin-off of Sears Canada alongside its latest
quarterly results, pleasing investors who have called for a strategic overhaul.
Retail giant Walmart
(WMT 62.43, +0.75) posted a strong report.
Continued weakness among stocks resulted in further rotation into
Treasuries. Shortly after the close on Thursday the yield on the 10-year Note
set a new record low narrowly beneath 1.70%.
On Thursday the Volatility Index climbed above 24 for the first
time in 2012. It eased back on Friday, but remains up more than 60% from the
lows that it set less than two months ago.
The S&P 500 fell more than 4% this week – its worst weekly
performance since November. Moreover, the broad market measure is now below
1300 for the first time since January.
Action this week finished on a weak note as stocks spent the first
half of Friday chopping along the neutral line before descending into the
close. Stocks have logged losses in 11 of the last 13 sessions.
Natural resource plays attempted to offer support, but neither
Materials nor Energy could fully sustain gains. Both had been up more than 1%
at their session highs, but settled the session with losses of 0.5% and 0.7%,
respectively.
Strength in natural gas and precious metals helped the CRB
Commodity Index muster a 0.3% gain. Despite four straight advances for the CRB,
it still suffered a third straight weekly loss, the latest of which was 0.5%.
Crude oil continued to encounter selling. The energy component fell
to $91.08 per barrel for a new 2012 low, but settled pit trade on Friday at
$91.51 per barrel for a loss of little more than 1%. Prices in the constant
futures contract are now down about 17% from their February high.
The slide in oil has been made easier by an advancing dollar, which
climbed another 1.1% this week against a basket of major foreign currencies.
Last night it moved up to its best level since 2010, but a drift lower left it
to suffer a slight loss on Friday.
Most of the greenback’s gains have come against the euro, which
managed to put together a gain of about 0.6% on Friday, but it continues to
contend with concerns about shaky fiscal, financial, and economic conditions in
the eurozone, highlighted at the end of the week by a
series of downgrades for several of
The pace of quarterly earnings reports has slowed in recent weeks,
but on Friday Gap (GPS
25.71, -0.60), Applied Materials
(AMAT 10.36, -0.12), Intuit
(INTU 54.51, +0.10), and Marvell
(MRVL 12.76, -0.55) all posted upside earnings surprises. Their announcements
were overshadowed amid the frenzy that surrounded the debut of social website Facebook
(FB 38.37, +0.37).
Crude oil extended its slide to a sixth straight session, dipping
to a floor session low of $91.08 before it settled with a 4.7% weekly loss.
This puts the energy component at a new low for 2012. Influencing the action
were strength in the dollar earlier this week and bearish inventory data that
showed a build of 2.1 million barrels when a build of 1.5 million barrels had
been anticipated played. In contrast, natural gas was the week's top performer.
It finished pit trade at its session high for a 9.6% weekly gain. Natural gas
prices are now up nearly 40% from the $2.00 low set in April.
Precious metals extended yesterday's gains as the dollar remained
near the flat line for most of the session. Gold climbed to a pit session high
of $1597.40 per ounce before it settled at $1592.10 per ounce for a weekly gain
of 0.5%. Silver climbed as high as $28.90 per ounce before slightly pulling
back and settling at $28.72 per ounce, which makes for a 0.7% weekly loss. Both
metals came off their 2012 lows that were set earlier this week -- $1536.30 per
ounce for gold and $27.18 per ounce for silver. Moves came in reaction to news
on
The expiration of monthly options drove share volume on the NYSE
well above recent daily averages. DJ30 -73.11 NASDAQ -34.90 NQ100 -1.2% R2K
-1.0% SP400 -1.2% SP500 -9.64 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec
697/2.53 bln/1788 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 714/959 mln/2316