YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Weakness among stocks was exacerbated with
the release of the most recent FOMC meeting minutes, which contained some
surprisingly hawkish verbiage, but stocks were able to pare their losses in
late afternoon trade.
Limited leadership and weakness among Energy and Financial stocks
left the broad market to drift lower in morning and early afternoon trade.
Selling intensified once it was learned that that members of the Federal Open
Market Committee took the collective position that forward guidance is conditional
on economic developments, making dates for policy subject to revision in
response to significant changes in the economic outlook. Although this mindset
should not have come as a surprise, many market participants turned against
stocks because of the belief that further quantitative easing may not be as
probable as previously thought.
The S&P 500 traded down to a loss of about 1%, which put it in
line with its prior session low, before it was able to find support. Stocks
then spent the final 90 minutes slashing losses.
The Nasdaq was
able to hold up better than either of its counterparts for the duration of the
day. Although it still logged a modest loss, it was propped up by Apple (AAPL 629.32, +10.69). Already the
largest stock by market cap, shares of AAPL logged a new record high in
response to positive analyst commentary. The stock is now up a whopping 55%
year to date.
The idea of fewer dollars in circulation provided a catalyst for
the dollar to trade higher after it had been essentially flat all morning. By
day's end it was up 0.7% against a basket of major foreign currencies.
The confluence of the FOMC's hawkish tone
and the gain by the greenback took most commodities sharply lower. The CRB
Index logged a 0.5% loss, but that didn't capture the dive in precious metals
prices, which closed pit trade before the FOMC minutes were released.
Treasuries were also cut down aggressively. The action swung the
yield on the benchmark 10-year Note up to almost 2.29% after it had traded only
narrowly above 2.15% this morning.
Actual data was limited today, but factory orders increased by
1.3%, which is on par with the 1.4% increase that had been expected, on
average, among economists polled by Briefing.com.
Crude oil traded in negative territory for its entire pit session,
but in mid-morning action it almost made it to the even line before being
backed down. A hawkish tone to the minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting
stocked further selling as participants considered the implications of taking
plans for further quantitative easing off of the table. The action left the
energy component to settle pit trade with a 1.2% loss at $104.02 per barrel.
Natural gas spent the better part of its floor session in positive territory,
chopping around $2.18 per MMBtu before inching up to
$2.19 per MMBtu to close pit trade with a 1.9% gain.
Among precious metals, gold prices experienced some volatility in
its pit session. The yellow metal settled floor trade at $1672.10 per ounce for
a 0.5% loss. Along the way it set a session low of $1668.60 per ounce, but even
that has been surpassed in electronic trade as the implications of the FOMC's hawkish comments come into play. Gold futures prices
were recently quoted at $1643 per ounce in electronic trade. Silver spent its
morning in negative territory, but trended upwards to eventually break into the
black. It settled pit trade just above the unchanged mark for a 0.1% gain at
$33.13 per ounce, but was recently quoted at $32.56 per ounce in electronic trade
Advancing Sectors:
Utilities +0.1%
Declining Sectors:
Telecom -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Tech -0.1%, Health Care -0.1%,
Industrials -0.6%, Consumer Staples -0.6%, Financials -0.7%, Materials -0.9%,
Energy -1.0%DJ30 -64.94 NASDAQ -6.13 NQ100 -0.1% R2K -0.7% SP400 +0.3% SP500
-5.66 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 769/1.79 bln/1768 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1057/816 mln/1942