YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: For the second time this week stocks rolled
over in afternoon trade to suffer sizable losses.
Market participants displayed caution ahead of the open as
Producer price data proved less influential. Overall producer
prices declined during May by 1.0%, which is steeper than the 0.7% decline that
had been widely forecasted, but core producer prices experienced an in-line
increase of 0.2%.
Although stocks were able to work through some modest selling
pressure in morning trade, they struggled to extend the move. Financials eventually
offered leadership, but the broad market remained reluctant to follow. The path
of least resistance proved to be downward amid such broad market anemia. The
major averages managed to make a modest bounce in the final minutes of trade,
but broad losses were still booked.
Materials stocks and Consumer Discretionary stocks suffered the
most. Both sectors sank to a 1.5% loss. The former was hurt primarily by
diversified chemicals players, while the latter was undermined by weakness
among retailers – SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 56.46, -1.60).
Financials, which had mustered a solid
gain with help from JPMorgan Chase (JPM 34.30, +0.53), finished the day with a
0.5% loss. In a testimony before the Senate Banking
Committee, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated that he expects the bank to be
solidly profitable in the current quarter, and that progress has already been
made in reducing risk following the firm’s massive trading loss that received
so much attention several weeks ago.
There weren’t any encouraging headlines regarding efforts to shore
up conditions in the eurozone, but the euro staged a strong advance against the
greenback. By session’s end the euro was up 0.5% to $1.257.
Treasuries attracted buying interest amid the stock market's slide,
such that the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note returned to almost 1.60%.
Also in play were results from an auction of 10-year Notes. The offering
attracted a Bid-to-Cover of 3.06, Dollar Demand of $64.2 billion, and an
Indirect Bidder rate of 42.0%. For comparison, the prior auction attracted a
Bid-to-Cover of 2.90, Dollar Demand of $69.6 billion, and an Indirect Bidder
participation rate of 38.7%, while an average of the last six auctions results
in a Bid-to-Cover of 3.18, Dollar Demand of $69.8 billion, and an Indirect
Bidder rate of 42.4%.
Crude oil came off its morning low of $82.15 per barrel to push
into positive territory, extending its climb to a session high of $84.02 per
barrel shortly after weekly inventory data showed that gasoline inventories had
a draw of 1.72 million barrels when a build of 1.40 million barrels had been
anticipated. Weekly crude oil inventories experienced a smaller-than-expected
draw of 191,000 barrels. The energy component failed to sustain its gain and
fell back into the red, settling with a 0.9% loss at $82.56 per barrel.
Natural gas chopped around in negative territory for its entire
floor session. It set a session high of $2.23 per MMBtu, but fell lower as it
headed into the close. It settled at its session low of $2.18 ber MMBtu with a
2.7% loss.
Gold popped into positive territory ahead of pit trade open. It
traded up to a session high of $1626.00 per ounce, but fell back to the
unchanged mark. Despite the dip, the yellow metal was able to reclaim gains in
afternoon action and settle the pit session 0.4% higher at $1619.90 per ounce.
Silver rallied to a session high of $29.09 per ounce in early morning action,
but later fell into negative territory to a session low of $28.77 per ounce. It
spent the afternoon session attempting to rebound, ultimately settling at
$28.93 per ounce, just a penny below the break-even line.
Advancing Sectors:
Telecom +0.1%
Declining Sectors:
Utilities -0.1%, Health Care -0.1%, Consumer Staples -0.3%, Financials -0.5%,
Tech -0.7%, Industrials -1.0%, Energy -1.1%, Consumer Discretionary -1.5%,
Materials -1.5%DJ30 -77.42 NASDAQ -24.46 NQ100 -0.7% R2K -1.3% SP400 -1.4%
SP500 -9.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 747/1.59 bln/1727 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 954/683
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