Stocks finished the day mostly lower today after earnings warnings gave investors some pause. The Dow finished lower by 86 today. The S&P 500 closed down by 3. The Nasdaq bucked the trend and finished with a gain of 8 points.
Breaking down the sector trades today will understandably not make much sense to most, since the areas that were hit by profit warnings actually finished the day as the strongest sectors. The energy sector and the basic materials sector were both subject to earnings misses and warnings, but they were two of the strongest sectors today.
Energy stocks were the strongest on the day today, gaining ground this afternoon as crude oil surged more than $1 a barrel. The gain in energy prices this afternoon was likely due to the colder weather that is now setting up over much of the United States. Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB) gained 3.47% today to lead the sector higher. Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE:BHI) shares surged by 4.87% on double their normal volume today. XTO Energy (NYSE:XTO) rose by 2.52% as natural gas stocks were quite strong on the day.
The basic material sector was led higher by gold stocks, which moved higher in tandem with spot gold prices today. Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) shares gained 6.35% on strong volume today. Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) rose by 2.14%.
Infrastructure stocks soared today following a positive earnings report from The Shaw Group (NYSE:SGR). SGR gained 6.87% on huge volume on the day and McDermott International (NYSE:MDR) gained 3.85%.
Financials were quite weak today. American International Group (NYSE:AIG) lost 2.25% to lead the insurance group lower. Regional banks showed significant weakness on the day. Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq:FITB) shares lost 2.57%. Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) lost 2.29% on the day.
The aerospace and defense sector was a real leader on the downside today as well after Boeing (NYSE:BA) said that the 787 Dreamliners wouldn't be delivered until 6 months later than projected. Spirit Aerosystems (NYSE:SPR) which is tied strongly to the Dreamliner saw its shares lose 6.36% of their value. General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) shares lost 1.37% on the day.
Notable 52 week highs
- Costco Wholesale (Nasdaq:COST) shares rose 9.19% on huge volume after the company blew earnings estimate away.
- Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) shares rose another 1.66% to close at another all time high today.
- Baidu.com (Nasdaq:BIDU) gained 4.38% today and has risen 100% in less than two months now.
The internals of the market really weren't that bad today. At the NYSE and the Nasdaq decliners outpaced advancers about 50%-45%. New 52 week highs still outpaced new lows by about 3 to 1 today and up volume and down volume was about even. Volume was fairly heavy on the Nasdaq, with almost 2 billion shares traded.
As I wrote in today's earlier post, it will be interesting to gauge earnings reports and warnings in the next few weeks. Earnings season is about to gear up, and the market has done very well, so further disappointments could impede the indices going forward.
Tommorrow we have the important retail sales numbers that are sure to move the markets in one way or another.
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