Wall Street ends mixed as Treasury yields ease, focus turns to earnings
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[October 24, 2023] By
Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks wavered to a mixed close on Monday as
benchmark U.S. Treasury yields backed down from 5% and investors shifted
their focus to this week's high profile earnings and closely watched
economic data.
The S&P 500 index ended modestly lower, while a host of interest rate
sensitive momentum stocks buoyed the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index
to a higher close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its fourth straight daily drop.
"The story continues to be about interest rates, and to some extent
switching from 'higher for longer' to 'how much higher for how much
longer?'" said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president at Wealthspire
Advisors in New York. "The market has accepted the idea that the Fed is
not going to lower rates any time soon."
The tech-heavy Nasdaq racked up the largest gains among Wall Street's
major indexes, while the blue-chip Dow was nominally lower.
The S&P 500 ended below its 200-day moving average, a closely watched
technical level, for the second straight session.
The week ahead promises to be eventful for earnings, with reports by
nearly one-third of the companies in the S&P 500.
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These include megacap momentum drivers, including Microsoft Corp,
Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com, along with
heavy-hitting industrials such as General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and
Boeing Co.
"With nearly a third of the S&P reporting this week, investors are
hoping these 'magnificent seven' companies will end up surprising to the
upside," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research
in New York.
So far, 86 of the companies in the S&P 500 have posted earnings. Of
those, 78% have beat expectations, LSEG data showed.
Analysts see aggregate S&P 500 earnings for the July-September period
growing 1.2% year-on-year, slightly below the 1.6% growth projected at
the start of the month, according to LSEG.
The Commerce Department on Thursday will announce third-quarter gross
domestic product, seen accelerating to 4.3%. Its wide-ranging Personal
Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report, due on Friday, is expected to
show annual headline and core inflation cooling down to 3.4% and 3.7%,
respectively.
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in
New York City, U.S., October 20, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File
photo
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"The Fed wants to slow inflation at a quicker pace than it slows
economic growth, and it's doing so," Pursche added. "That's the
classic definition of a soft landing."
Geopolitical turmoil is also on the radar, with market participants
looking for potential signs the Israel-Hamas conflict could broaden
or escalate.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 190.87 points, or 0.58%, to
32,936.41; the S&P 500 lost 7.12 points, or 0.17%, at 4,217.04; and
the Nasdaq Composite added 34.52 points, or 0.27%, at 13,018.33.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, communication services
notched the biggest gain, while energy shares suffered the largest
percentage drop.
Walgreens Boots Alliance surged 3.3% after J.P. Morgan upgraded the
pharmacy chain operator to "overweight" from "neutral."
Chevron fell 3.7% after the company said it would buy smaller rival
Hess Corp in a $53 billion all-stock deal. Hess dipped 1.1%.
Agricultural sciences firm FMC tumbled 13.2% after the company
lowered its third-quarter guidance.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 2.10-to-1
ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.04-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 58 new lows; the Nasdaq
Composite recorded 14 new highs and 514 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.80 billion shares, compared with the
10.67 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading
days.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra
and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)
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