Stocks Close Higher, Dow Jones Jump 210 Points
4:21 pm Wednesday, June 30th, 2021
U.S. stocks traded in a narrow range Wednesday, the last day of a quarter that closed with a June rally powered by technology stocks.
Value stocks, or non-technology stocks, might be benefiting from rebalancing activity after what’s been a strong quarter, and month, for growth stocks. The extent of rebalancing activity, however, has perhaps been mitigated by lingering growth concerns. The 10-yr yield is trading lower by five basis points to 1.44%.
On the value side, the Russell 1000 Value Index was up 0.3% while the S&P 500 energy (+1.3%), industrials (+0.8%), financials (+0.6%), and consumer staples (+0.6%) sectors outperformed in the green. The consumer staples sector has included EPS beats from Constellation Brands (STZ) and General Mills (GIS).
On the growth side, the Russell 1000 Growth Index was down 0.3%, the information technology sector is down 0.2%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is down 0.5%.
In the semiconductor space, Intel (INTC) delayed the production of its Xeon server chip until 2022, which has provided a bid in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Micron (MU) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets ahead of its earnings report after the close.
Separately, a host of newly-minted public companies, including Didi Global (DIDI), have opened for trading well above their IPO prices. The new supply could be playing a role in the general underperformance of the growth stocks today.
The ADP Employment Change report estimated the addition of 692,000 private-sector payrolls in June (consensus 400,000) following a downwardly revised 886,000 increase (from 978,000) in May.
Pending home sales rose 8.0% m/m in May following a 4.4% decline in April.
