US Stocks Take A Breather, Nasdaq Notches Fifth Straight Month Of Gains: Investors Gear Up For Pivotal Week

The U.S. stock market has started the week on a lackluster note, with all indices hovering around Friday’s closing values. Traders are adopting a more cautious approach as they await crucial events scheduled for the week.

The market will be heavily influenced by significant earnings reports, including Apple, Inc. AAPL and Amazon Inc. AMZN on Thursday, and crucial macroeconomic data, such as PMI readings and the highly anticipated jobs report set to be released on Friday.

The Nasdaq 100 Index is on track for its sixth month of advances. Since Lehman’s fall in 2008, such a long winning streak has only happened four times. The last time it happened was between April and August 2020.

Cues From Monday’s Trading:

The major three indices, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and the Dow all inched 0.1% higher, while small caps in the Russell 2000 outperformed by rising 0.9%. The Russell 2000 index is also approaching its 2023 highs at 2,007 points hit on February.

US Stock Market Performance on Monday

Index	Performance (+/-)	Value
Nasdaq 100	+0.13%	15,769.30
S&P 500 Index	+0.08%	4,586.77
Dow Industrials	+0.06%	35,461.66
Russell 2000	+0.86%	1,998.38

Analyst Color:

The heartening aspect of the market upside is the broader participation, and LPL Financial's Chief Technical Strategist Adam Turnquist said technicals confirm the development.

"Technical evidence suggests this year's rally is no longer just a mega-cap story as broadening participation has changed the narrative," the analyst said. He noted that the relative performance of the average stock is building and the market's advance/decline line traded at a new 52-week high.

Also, nearly 75% of the S&P 500 stocks were trading above their 200-day moving average, with cyclical sectors seeing the highest percentages among sector peers, he said. International stocks were also participating in the year's rally, with most major global benchmarks now in bull market territory, he added.

"Overall, we view the expansion in market breadth as a constructive sign for the sustainability of this bull market."

Monday’s Trading In Major US Equity ETFs: In midday trading on Monday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was flat at $457, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA was unchanged at $354 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ held steady at $383, according to Benzinga Pro data.

The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE outperformed, rising 1.9%, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV was the laggard, down 1.1%.

Latest Economic Data

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s manufacturing sector general business activity index hit a four-month high of -20.0 in July 2023, marking the second consecutive monthly increase. However, the production index remained reasonably constant at -4.8, indicating a small drop in output.

The Federal Reserve will release the results of its loan office survey at 4 p.m. EDT.

See also: How To Trade Futures

Stocks In Focus:

• SoFi Technologies, Inc. SOFI rose 18% on better-than-expected Q2 results.
• Palantir Technologies, Inc. PLTR rose over 9%, extending the upward momentum from Friday.
• On Semiconductor Corp. ON rose 3% as the company reported better-than-expected results last quarter.
• Johnson & Johnson JNJ failed its second attempt to declare bankruptcy on its unit (LTL Management) and settle talc-related litigation as a U.S. judge concluded that the ongoing talc cases did not place LTL Management in “immediate financial distress.”
• Companies reporting after the close include Lattice Semiconductor Corp. LSCC, Yum China Holdings, Inc. YUMC, Western Digital Corp. WDC, Vornado Realty Trust VNO, Transocean Ltd. RIG, Artista Networks, Inc. ANET, J&J Snack Foods Corp. JJSF and Avis Budget Group, Inc. CAR.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil rose 0.7%, with a barrel of WTI-grade crude trading at $81. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO was 0.8% higher to $72.70.  

Treasury yields were steady, with the 10-year yield down by 2 basis points to 3.93% and the two-year yield up by 1 basis points to 4.86%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT was 0.4% higher for the day. 

The U.S. dollar index, which is tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP, was flat. The EUR/USD pair, which is tracked by the Invesco CurrecyShares Euro Currency Trust FXE, eased 0.1% to 1.1000.

European equity indexes closed mixed. The SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 Etf  FEZ held steady 0.5%. 

Gold rose 0.6% to $1,971/oz. The SPDR Gold Trust GLD was 0.6% higher to $183. Silver rocketed 1.9% to $22.8, with the iShares Silver Trust SLV up 2% to $22.8. Bitcoin BTC/USD was 0.2% down to $29,223.

Staff writer Piero Cingari updated this report midday Monday. 

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