The Asian markets were down, HK -0.16%, Shanghai 0.71% and Japan -1.16%. China is hosting U S executives. In the meantime It announced that it was stopping buying of chips from INTC and AMD for government products.
European markets were up modestly, Euro STOXX -0.26% and DAX +0.30%. These markets have been feeding off the U S markets recently.
In the U S, the Chicago Fed Nat Activity Index improved in February, +0.5 from -1.8. This is like a PMI going from 47 to 51, better than expected.
The New Home Sales were 662,000 from 664,000, below consensus.
The Dallas Fed Index came in poor, -14.4 from -11.2 and Production -4.3 from +1.0.
S&P 500 opened at 5.217. It drifted most of the day, peaking around 2:30 at 5,229. It reversed the drift and dipped in the last half hour to close at 5,217.
It was a quiet day after last weeks burst. It never could get legs on the upside, but there was no serious weakness.
The Fed talk was mixed with Bostic hawkish and Goolsbee in line with Powell at 3 cuts.
The EU initiated anti trust on AAPL, GOOG and META. The penalty would be 10% of international revenue!!!
BA decided to change management. This will be drawn out with a lot of work to do to placate the regulator. I mentioned INTC and AMD were impacted by Chinese action.
The DJIA slid 0.41%. The NASDAQ declined 0.27% and the QQQ 0.36%. The IWM edged up 0.10%.
WTI rose $1.32 to 81.95. Russia ordered oil companies to cut production to meet the goals promised OPEC. The XOP added 1.1% and the XLE 0.9%.
The 10 yr T bond rate drifted up slowly, closing up 3.5 bps to 4.253%. The KBWB dipped 0.2%. The XLU was + 0.9%.
The VIX was up 1% to 13.19. The declines led, the NYSE 1.4 to 1 and the NASDAQ 1.35 to 1. The volume was average.
The Goldman trading desk had a report pointing out no one wants to hedge since the market has kept climbing while investors were looking out for a pullback. This shows up in a day like today. There are few sellers.
The most important data of the week is the PCE inflation report. It is Friday morning when the market is on a holiday!!!!
Blub
Jerry