Where the session stands: breadth, sectors, and what moved.
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This is the CAMS Midday Market Check for Friday, August fourteenth.
Stocks are drifting lower at midday. The split underneath is the more interesting part. The S and P 500 is off about a quarter of a percent, the Dow down roughly two tenths, and the Nasdaq 100 is the weakest of the majors at about four tenths lower. The Russell 2000 is the exception, up a quarter of a percent, so small caps are firm while the megacap end sags.
Dow breadth is close to a coin flip: thirteen names higher, sixteen lower. Dow Incorporated leads, up better than two percent, with Chevron up about one and seven tenths and Disney up one and four tenths. The soft side clusters in software and health care. Salesforce is off more than two percent, Cisco about two, Amgen one and three tenths.
Seven of the eleven sectors are higher. Energy is the clear leader, up roughly one and a half percent, with utilities up six tenths and industrials up four tenths. Technology sits at the bottom, down six tenths, health care off about half a percent, and financials just barely negative. Energy and utilities leading while technology lags looks like money rotating across the market, not leaving it.
Volatility agrees. The VIX is near fourteen and a half and slightly lower on the day, so nobody is paying up for protection into the weekend.
Retail sales and the preliminary Michigan sentiment and inflation expectation numbers are already behind us. Still ahead, remarks from the President at three o'clock Eastern, and next Wednesday brings the minutes of the last Fed meeting.
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