The stock market began the week on an upbeat note with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.8%) pacing the Monday advance. The price-weighted index settled well ahead of the S&P 500 (+0.4%) while the Nasdaq Composite (+0.3%) spent the bulk of the day near its flat line.

 

Equity indices climbed out of the gate with cyclical sectors fueling the early advance. Meanwhile, countercyclical groups struggled early, but only the telecom services sector (-0.3%) failed to turn positive by the closing bell. 

 

Eight of ten sectors finished the day in the green with industrials (+0.9%) settling in the lead. The sector benefitted from solid gains among large cap names like 3M (MMM 166.37, +2.01), Boeing (BA 154.75, +1.63), and Caterpillar (CAT 80.81, +0.75) with the three Dow components advancing between 0.9% and 1.2%. The trio helped the Dow climb throughout the session while the Nasdaq underperformed due to relative weakness in biotechnology and major chipmakers like Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM 23.45, -0.64) and Intel (INTC 32.71, -0.48).

 

Furthermore, the top-weighted Nasdaq component—Apple (AAPL 127.09, +0.49)—showed intraday volatility, but ended higher by 0.4% after introducing new features to its MacBook lineup and unveiling the Apple Watch with retail prices for the latter ranging from $349 to more than $10,000 for a premium version crafted with gold alloys. As for the broader technology sector (+0.5%), the group struggled in the early going, but finished among the leaders.

 

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, the discretionary space (+0.5%) also settled ahead of the broader market with shares of McDonald's (MCD 97.71, +0.58) shrugging off a 1.7% decline in February global sales that included a 4.0% drop in domestic sales.

 

On the downside, the energy sector (-0.7%) started in the lead, but settled at the bottom of the leaderboard even though crude oil advanced 0.7% to $49.96/bbl.

 

Treasuries began climbing overnight and continued their rally during the session to send the 10-yr yield lower by five basis points to 2.20%. The advance followed news that the Eurogroup rejected some of the reforms proposed by Greece. The two sides met once again today, but the meeting did not produce any joint statements.

 

Today's participation was relatively light with fewer than 750 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

 

Tomorrow, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for January and the January Wholesale Inventories report (Briefing.com consensus -0.1%) will be released at 10:00 ET.

 

Nasdaq Composite +4.4% YTD

Russell 2000 +1.5% YTD

S&P 500 +1.0% YTD

Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.0% YTD