Day Traders Diary

8/4/15

The stock market registered its third consecutive decline on Tuesday with the S&P 500 shedding 0.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.3%) underperformed.

Equity indices spent the first half of the trading day near their flat lines with the S&P 500 bouncing inside a six-point range. The benchmark index made a brief appearance in the green, but could not build on that momentary gain as the top-weighted technology sector (-0.7%) weighed. Specifically, Apple (AAPL 114.64, -3.80) was down as much as 4.4% in the early going, which kept a lid on the market. The tech heavyweight narrowed its loss to 3.2% by the close, ending near levels last seen in late January.

Similar to Apple, most large cap tech components registered losses while chipmakers also underperformed with the PHLX Semiconductor Index falling 1.1%. Including today's decline, the SOX index is down 7.2% in 2015.

Unlike technology, most other cyclical sectors traded in the green early on, but their gains faded during the afternoon. The S&P 500 marked a session low during afternoon action after Atlanta Fed President and FOMC voting member Dennis Lockhart said that, barring significant deterioration in economic data, the economy will be ready for a rate hike in September. The stock market recovered rather quickly from the move that occurred after Mr. Lockhart's comments while Treasuries settled near their lows with the 10-yr yield rising six basis points to 2.21%. On a related note, the Dollar Index (97.91, +0.41) charged to a fresh high, climbing 0.4%. The USD/CAD pair was in focus as continued weakness in the Canadian dollar drove the pair to a fresh 11-year high.

Although the S&P 500 returned to its intraday range, it could not push into the green as only two sectors—consumer discretionary (+0.3%) and materials (+0.4%)—registered gains. The discretionary sector was underpinned by retailers, evidenced by a 0.7% gain in SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 97.89, +0.67). On the earnings front, Coach (COH 31.40, +0.97) spiked 3.2% after beating earnings and revenue estimates.

On the downside, the energy sector (-0.5%) struggled even as crude oil rose 1.1% to $45.76/bbl. Similarly, telecom services (-0.5%) and utilities (-1.7%) ended the day behind the broader market. The utilities sector ended at the bottom of the leaderboard, snapping its seven-day streak as higher market rates took some shine of the high-yielding sector.

Today's participation was in-line with average as roughly 790 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data was limited to the Factory Orders report for June, which increased an in-line 1.8%. Durable goods orders increased 3.4% in June, which was unrevised from the advance durable goods report. These orders declined 2.3% in May.

As the advance report already showed, a majority of the increase in orders was the result of a 56.0% increase in defense and nondefense aircraft orders. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were revised down from a 0.8% gain in the advance report to an increase of 0.6%.

Tomorrow, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be released at 7:00 ET while ADP Employment Change for July (Briefing.com consensus 220K) will be announced at 8:15 ET. The Trade Balance for June (consensus -$42.70 billion) will cross the wires at 8:30 ET while the ISM Services Index for July (expected 56.3) will be reported at 10:00 ET.

Nasdaq Composite +7.8% YTD

S&P 500 +1.7% YTD

Russell 2000 +1.9% YTD

Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.5% YTD