@Speckledjim, thanks for opening, good to see you back @Cleo , Sorry, i had nothing to do with it
Dow Jones 21008 minus 21
S&P 500 2411 minus 1.11
FTSE 7519 minus 6
DAX 12615 plus 16
OIL 48.29 minus 1.37
GOLD 1268 plus 6.4
AUD 0.7430
Hong Kong Fuey, number one super guy
SPI Futures minus 10
U.S. stock-index gauges on Wednesday traded lower, albeit off their worst levels, on the last day of the month, as a slump in bank shares and a mixed reading of economic reports weighed on investor sentiment.
The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.05% fell 1.11 point, with the financial sector, down 1.3%, representing the worst performer among the broad-market gauge’s 11 sectors, and energy shares down 0.4%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.10% declined 21 points, or 0.3%, at 21008, with shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, -2.09% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -3.28% dragging blue chips firmly into the red. Combined, the pair of bank stocks were contributing the lion’s share of the Dow’s loss.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.08% after briefly touching an intraday high of 6,221.99, fell 27 points, or 0.4%, lower at 6,176.
All of the equity indexes were slight trading above their worst levels of the session.
Financials are taking a hit because two of the largest U.S. banks are signaling a trading slowdown on the same day, said Ian Winer, head of the equities division at Wedbush Securities. Both J.P. Morgan and Bank of America Corp.BAC, -1.86% cautioned at industry conferences on Wednesday that trading is weakening in the second quarter.
Couple that with the drop in oil prices and reports that former FBI Director James Comey will publicly testify that President Donald Trump pushed him to end the probe into former national-security adviser Michael Flynn and you have a market that is going to sell off, Winer said.
“Banks are being cautious and that has to make people a little nervous, and the market continues to plow money into the same names everyday,” said Winer, citing stocks like Amazon.com Inc.AMZN, -0.21%Alphabet Inc.GOOG, -1.13%GOOGL, -0.91%Tesla Inc.TSLA, +1.76% and Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -0.36% all of which are up 25% or more for the year.
“I’m concerned that there are quantitative models out there that are ‘buy high, buy higher’ so you have this strange phenomenon feeding on itself where [those stocks] become a bigger part of the S&P 500,” he said.
The benchmarks took a decided turn for the worst after a reading for pending-home sales came in worse than expected. Pending-home sales from the National Association of Realtors fell 1.3% to a level of 109.8 from a reduction in the March reading.
Meanwhile, a gauge of economic health, the Chicago business barometer, or Chicago PMI, rose to 59.4 in May, its highest level in 2½ years. Earlier, reporting agency MNI Indicators had mistakenly said the gauge fell to 55.2. Any reading over 50 indicates improving conditions. Stocks pared gains slightly following the corrected PMI reading.
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, or anecdotal report of regional conditions, said the economy is still growing at a “modest or moderate” pace, appearing to support a June rate increase.
Even so, the market may be at a tipping point where a recent trend of soft data may support bearish views that economic growth doesn’t warrant two additional rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in 2017, said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. The Fed is widely expected to lift rates in June by a quarter point.
“The question the market is grappling with is, is the Fed raising rates in an environment in which perhaps the economic data are weakening more than you should see for a rate-hike cycle?” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.
“The Fed has been clear [in past policy statements] that weaker data are just noise and that we are moving toward a stronger economic backdrop but at this stage the dollar should rise; also, we see 10-year yields which haven’t moved higher,” she said.
Indeed, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.20% hit a five-week low dropping below 2.20% on Wednesday, while the dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.42% a gauge of the buck against six rivals, was off 0.3%.
“People are looking for reasons to buy, but it doesn’t take a lot for markets to tumble back,” Cieszynski said. “I think some traders are starting to throw in the towel.”
On the month, the Nasdaq has been the best-performing among major indexes, up 2.2% in May, followed by a 0.9% gain for the S&P 500. Both indexes are set for their best monthly percentage gains since February 2017. The Dow is hanging on to a meager gain of about 0.2%.
U.S. stocks finished modestly lower on Tuesday driven by losses for energy shares, which continued their downtrend Wednesday, with U.S. crude-oil prices CLN7, -2.62%dipping below $48 a barrel.
Fed speakers: Among Fed speakers, San Francisco Fed President John Williams will give a speech on “global economic and financial challenges” at the Bank of Korea International Conference 2017 in Seoul, South Korea at 8:10 p.m. Eastern.
to quote that great sage of our time, Big Kev "i'm excited"
SPI futures currently down 10 point due to the drop in Oil last night
have a Good day
P.S.
Gunna start a new segment on this forum, called Verses
kinda like Celebrity Death Match, where i'm going to pit the greatest warriors of our time against the greatest warriors of a previous age, and you be the judge, and i'm going to start with a tag team contest,
Ross Gelher and Chandler Bing Verses Potsy Webber and Ralph Mouth
