After the relative momentum of the past two weeks, equity trading remained volatile yesterday. The various US equity indices went a bit in no particular order: the Dow reported modest losses while the S&P and Nasdaq had a slight rebound.
The Dow (DJI) at -0.3%, the S&P (SP500) closed at + 0.3% and the Nasdaq (COMP.IND) at + 1.0%.The S&P 500 climbed above the 4,000 mark to close at 4,001.05, with 9.81 points. The Nasdaq, which led the rally, rose 114.42 points to close at 11,737.67.The latter was highly affected by Amazon’s poor earnings results, with AMZN stock forecast for the following 12 months at less than $4k.
While S&P and Nasdaq gained ground, market weakness is still underlined. Of the eleven S&P segments, seven closed lower, driven by the real estate sector, which fell by more than 2%. Conversely, the best performing sector was Info Tech which closed with a gain of approximately 1.6%.
The bond market saw long-term yields decline again. In particular, the 10-year Treasury yield fell by 8 points to close to 3%, while the two-year work, on the other hand, gained about one basis point, approaching 2.63%.
A key measure of inflation is the consumer price index which is expected to be released on Wednesday. The economists forecast that the CPI will increase by 0.2% over the previous month and 8.1% yearly. That is the consensus estimate of the Dow Jones, which compares with a pace of 8.5% year on year in March.
