Day Traders Diary

10/16/15

The stock market endured a sleepy Friday session that capped an upbeat week. The S&P 500 added 0.5%, extending its weekly gain to 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite (+0.3%) underperformed on Friday, but still ended the week higher by 1.2%.

Overall, the Friday affair was pretty uneventful as the S&P 500 spent the bulk of the day in a ten-point range, climbing to a new high during the final hour. Four sectors settled ahead of the S&P 500 while the remaining six ended in-line with or behind the benchmark index.

Consumer staples (+1.0%) and health care (+1.0%) settled in the lead with the health care space holding up well despite an intraday swoon in biotechnology. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 314.32, -0.44) shed 0.1% after being up 1.1% at the start of the trading day. For the week, the health care sector gained 1.9% while the biotech ETF also climbed 1.9%.

Moving to the cyclical side, consumer discretionary (+0.6%) and financials (+0.4%) displayed relative strength since the opening bell while energy (+0.2%), industrials (-0.2%), materials (unch), and technology (+0.3%) spent the bulk of the session in the red.

Interestingly, the energy sector faced a daylong struggle even though crude oil erased its early loss to end the day higher by 1.9% at $47.26/bbl.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector (-0.2%) spent the day behind the remaining nine groups to widen its weekly decline to 1.2%. Top-weighted sector component General Electric (GE 28.98, +0.95) spiked 3.4% after reporting operating earnings of $0.32/share, which may not compare to estimates as the company continues divesting GE capital assets, but that strength could not offset broad weakness among transport stocks. The Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 1.6% with KC Southern (KSU 87.37, -10.63) diving 10.9% in reaction to disappointing quarterly results.

Similar to stocks, Treasuries drifted inside narrow ranges, but unlike equities, the 10-yr note settled on its low with the benchmark yield rising two basis points to 2.03%.

Despite the quiet intraday action, more than 900 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor with options expiration boosting the final tally.

Economic data was limited to Industrial Production, Michigan Sentiment, and JOLTS:

Industrial production declined 0.2% in September after declining an upwardly revised 0.1% (from -0.4%) in August while the Briefing.com consensus expected a drop of 0.2%

Manufacturing production declined for a second consecutive month and for a third time over the past four months. Production fell 0.1% in September after declining 0.4% in August

The decline in manufacturing production was the result of a 0.1% decline in durable goods production. Despite lower output in the petroleum sector, nondurable goods production was flat in September

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index increased to 92.1 in the preliminary October reading from 87.2 in September while the Briefing.com consensus expected an increase to 88.4

The Current Conditions Index increased to 106.7 in October from 101.2 in September while the Expectations Index increased to 82.7 from 78.2

The August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings decreased to 5.370 million from 5.668 million

Monday's data will be limited to the 10:00 ET release of the NAHB Housing Market Index for October (Briefing.com consensus 62).

Nasdaq Composite +3.2% YTD

S&P 500 -1.3% YTD

Dow Jones Industrial Average -3.4% YTD

Russell 2000 -3.6% YTD

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