YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The S&P 500 bounced 2.5% to score its
best one-day percentage gain since December. The move helped fuel a strong
weekly and monthly gain, but wasn’t enough to move stocks out of the red for
the month.
A foray into stocks followed news that Eurozone
officials have opened the door for
Market participants were also pleased to learn of a growth package
worth 120 billion euros that will be aimed at
boosting the European Investment Bank’s lending capacity.
The commitment of additional funds to address precarious conditions
was taken as a positive rather than as a negative with implications for fiscal
conditions. In turn, the euro rallied aggressively. By session’s end the euro
was up 1.7% against the greenback.
Improved sentiment among market participants and a decidedly weaker
dollar helped the case for commodities. In fact, the CRB Commodity Index
rallied 4.6% for its best single-session spike in almost three years.
Crude oil was a primary driver of the CRB’s
climb ahead of the EU's
With oil prices up and market participants willing to take on more
risk, Energy stocks rallied to a collective gain of a little more than 3%.
Still, they were slightly outperformed by Industrials and Tech plays; those two
sectors each scored gains of 3.3%.
Utilities, which are decidedly defensive, encountered some selling
after pushing higher in the early going. The sector was able to find support at
the flat line before fighting to reclaim gains. It settled the session with a
0.6% gain, only a fraction of what the broad market scored.
Nike (NKE
87.78, -9.11) shares suffered a precipitous drop despite the decidedly positive
tone to broad market trade. The stock’s slump came in response to a
disappointing quarterly report. Ford (F
9.59, -0.50) shares also fell hard; the company’s latest profit forecast proved
displeasing. A relatively soft forecast from Accenture (ACN 60.09, +3.46) was forgiven amid an upside
earning surprise and broad market strength.
Personal income increased in May by 0.2%, which is slightly greater
than the 0.1% increase that had been widely expected. However, personal
spending stayed flat, instead of increasing by 0.1% as had been broadly
anticipated. Core personal consumption expenditures were up 0.1% month over
month. They had been generally expected to increase by 0.2%.
The June Chicago PMI reading of 52.9 came as little surprise since
economists had generally expected a reading of 53.0 to follow the prior month
reading of 52.7.
The only other item on the economic calendar was the
The CRB Commodity Index rallied 4.6% today, booking its best
one-day bounce in almost three years.
Crude oil and precious metals surged in today's pit trade on
stronger sentiment and a drop in the dollar following the agreement between EU
leaders to provide relief fund access to sovereign debt and Spanish banks. The
move also came ahead of the EU's
Natural gas also climbed higher in today's floor session. It
finished the week 5.6% higher at $2.82 per MMBtu
despite yesterday's drop amid a bigger-than-expected inventory build of 57 bcf.
Gold settled just below its session high of $1607.80 per ounce,
closing the week 2.3% higher at $1603.50 per ounce. A rally in silver pushed
prices as high as $27.92 per ounce and erased losses from its previous three
sessions, such that the metal settled the week with a 3.6% gain at $27.67 per
ounce.
In addition to encouraging news from