Stocks Continue to Hit New Highs Ahead Of Key Earnings
4:49 pm Monday, July 26th, 2021
Major indices eked out new all-time highs ahead of a big week of news that include earnings, economic data, and the Fed’s policy decision. From a sector perspective, the S&P 500 energy sector is up an impressive 2.0%, although no other sector is up at least 1.0%.
Other contributors include the materials (+0.9%) and financials (+0.5%) sectors, Amazon.com (AMZN) amid a report from City A.M. that it’s considering accepting bitcoin as a payment option, and Tesla (TSLA) ahead of its earnings report after the close.
Amazon will report earnings later this week along with Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), and Facebook (FB). MSFT was the only stock from this mega-cap group that was trading lower.
On the downside, the health care (-0.9%), real estate (-0.4%), and information technology (-0.2%) sectors underperformed in negative territory, Lockheed Martin (LMT) was down 3% despite reporting positive earnings results, and the homebuilders are struggling following a disappointing new home sales report.
Briefly, new home sales declined 6.6% m/m in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 (consensus 800,000) amid affordability pressures. The iShares US Home Construction ETF (ITB) was down 1.0%.
Another story being discussed is the regulatory scrutiny consumer-technology companies are facing in China, and the negative impact it’s having on Chinese ADRs, especially those in the education space.
The CBOE Volatility Index was trading back above 18.00 but remains relatively subdued compared to last Monday’s spike to 25.09. The 10-yr yield is down one basis point to 1.28% after touching 1.22% overnight.
