Where the session stands: breadth, sectors, and what moved.
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This is the CAMS Midday Market Check for Thursday, August 13.
Stocks are higher at midday, but the gains are not spread evenly. The Nasdaq 100 is up about one and one tenth percent, the S&P 500 is up roughly half a percent, the Russell 2000 is up a fraction, and the Dow is actually a touch lower, off about a tenth of a percent.
The breadth inside the Dow explains a lot of that gap. Advancers and decliners are split exactly fifteen to fifteen, a dead heat. What is pulling the index negative is one very large decline in a networking company, down more than nine percent, with a couple of industrial names also lower. On the winning side, a telecom, a footwear company and a pharmaceutical are leading, each up one to two percent.
Sector leadership tells the same story from another angle. Eight of the eleven sectors are higher. Communications leads, up about one and a quarter percent, with real estate and technology close behind, each a little over one percent. The laggards are the cyclical corners of the tape. Materials, energy and industrials are all modestly lower. So the money today favors growth and rate sensitive areas over the economically geared parts of the market.
Volatility remains quiet. The VIX is near fourteen and seven tenths, up about one percent, a small uptick from a low base rather than a stress reading.
On the calendar, this morning's producer price data and weekly jobless claims are already behind us, and there is nothing else of consequence scheduled for today. Tomorrow brings retail sales before the open and consumer sentiment mid morning.
CAMS publishes impersonal market research — nothing here is individualized investment advice. The full written research is at curve ahead market strategies dot com.
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