U.S. Stocks Jump as Jobless Claims Rise
4:02 pm Thursday, July 07th, 2022
U.S. stocks were on up for a fourth straight session of gains Thursday, lifted by shares of everything from banks to consumer-focused companies.
The bounce is coinciding with a reversal in price action for the energy futures, which are making big moves to the upside. WTI crude oil futures are up 5.6% to $103.90/bbl. Natural gas futures are up 13.6% to $6.22/mmbtu. Unleaded gasoline futures are up 7.3% to $3.47/gal.
Another factor coinciding with the bounce is the strength seen in semiconductors, which have leading indicator status. The PHLX Semiconductor Index is up 4.3% versus a 1.3% gain in the S&P 500. This comes after South Korea’s Samsung posted an 11% rise in profit and 21% jump in revenue for the latest period on strong sales of memory chips. ON Semiconductors (ON), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Qualcomm (QCOM) are notable individual movers.
Buying interest has been fairly broad based as evidenced by the advance-decline line. Advancing issues lead declining issues by a greater than 3-to-1 margin at both the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
A look at the S&P 500 sectors shows only one trading down, consumer staples (-0.2%). Fellow countercyclical sectors, health care (+0.2%) and utilities (+0.1%), show modest gains but trail behind the broader market.
The top performing sectors are energy (+3.6%), consumer discretionary (+2.2%), information technology (+1.7%), and communication services (+1.5%).
Despite the factors contributing to the rally today, the 2s10s spread remains inverted. The 2-yr Treasury note yield is up nine basis points to 3.03% while the 10-yr note yield is up nine basis points to 3.00%.
