Stocks End Mixed; Tech Outperforms
3:36 pm Thursday, August 04th, 2022
Stocks were mixed on Wall Street Thursday as investors continued to review the latest updates on the economy and corporate earnings.
Rising interest rates have contributed to the weakening economic fundamentals. They are in play again today with Brazil’s central bank raising its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 13.75% and the Bank of England raising its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 1.75%.
The aggressive central bank moves are another pressure point for oil prices, which have been reeling of late on demand slowdown concerns. For good measure, the BOE also forecast a recession for the UK starting in the fourth quarter and lasting for five quarters.
WTI crude prices are down 3.2% to $87.83/bbl, sliding below $90.00 for the first time since February. This big downside move is weighing on the S&P 500 energy sector’s (-2.3%) performance, which is the top laggard by a decent margin.
The other laggard of note on the sector front is consumer staples (-1.0%), which is retreating on the back of a disappointing outlook from Clorox (CLX) and reports that Walmart (WMT) is cutting approximately 200 corporate positions in a restructuring effort.
The lack of leadership from mega caps stocks is being felt today, as the mega caps have been huge supports recently. Notable mega cap laggards, Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT), are weighing on the major indices.
Market breadth shows an otherwise mixed picture for the broader market. Advancers lead decliners by an 11-to-10 margin at the Nasdaq while decliners lead advancers by a roughly 6-to-5 margin at the NYSE.
Reviewing today’s economic data:
Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 30 increased by 6,000 to 260,000. That was in-line with the Briefing.com consensus estimate. Continuing claims for the week ending July 23 increased by 48,000 to 1.416 million.
