Stocks Gain Ground Before Independence Day Break: EV Sector Leads Charge With Solid Deliveries

The U.S. stock market moved slightly higher on Monday ahead of the Independence Day holiday, in a shortened session marked by light trading volumes.

The second half of the year has started off with a lower-than-expected ISM manufacturing PMI, which contracted to the lowest level in over three years.

On the plus side EV makers rallied strongly as Tesla Inc. TSLA saw its June deliveries growing 83% year-on-year to 466,140 vehicles, surpassing expectation of 445,000 units. Within the EV space, shares of Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN and Lucid Group Inc. LCID soared 14% and 5.1%, respectively.

U.S. Indices’ Performance on Monday

Analyst Color:

The S&P 500 Index is poised for another strong run in the second half of the year, said Carson Group's Ryan Detrick. Since 1950, there were 10 instances when the index is up between 12% and 17% in the first six months of the year, the analyst noted.

The market has advanced in the second half of the year in all the 10 instances and the average second half in these cases has been 10.9%, Detrick said.

Monday’s Trading In Major US Equity ETFs: In midday trading on Monday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 0.1% higher to $443.91, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA rose 0.2% to $344.49 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ was 0.1% higher to $369.79, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Almost all the U.S. equity sectors were positive, except for the the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV, down 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY was today’s best performer, up 1.4%, followed by the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund XLRE, up 0.9%

Latest Economic Data:

S&P Global released its final U.S. manufacturing purchase activity index for June, confirming the prior estimate of 46.3 down from 48.4 in May.

The Institute for Supply Management reported a lower-than-predicted PMI survey for June, with the overall index dropping to a three-year low of 46, down from 46.9 and below the expected 46.1

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Stocks In Focus:

• Fidelity National Information Services Inc. FIS rallied 6.4%, the most among S&P 500 stocks, after The Financial Times reported that the company’s Worldpay unit has attracted interest from private equity firms looking to buy a majority stake in the payments provider. 
• Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN jumped 11.6% after the CBOE refiled an application with the SEC to launch a Bitcoin ETF by Fidelity.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil was flat for the day, with a barrel of WTI-grade crude trading at $70.3. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO was 0.3% lower to $63.30.  

Treasury yields were marginally higher, with the 10-year yield up by 2 basis points to 3.86% and the two-year yield up by 3 basis points to 4.93%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT was 0.8% lower for the day. 

The dollar held steady, with the U.S. dollar index, which is tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP, at 102.9 levels. The EUR/USD pair, which is tracked by the Invesco CurrecyShares Euro Currency Trust FXE, was 0.1% higher to 1.0915.

European equity indexes had a mixed session, with France, Germany and the UK closing in the red. The SPDR DJ Euro Stoxx 50 ETF  FEZ fell 0.1%. 

Gold rose 0.2% to $1,925/oz. The SPDR Gold Trust GLD was 0.2% higher to $178.6. Silver rose 0.6% to $22.90, with the iShares Silver Trust SLV up 0.6% to $21. Bitcoin BTC/USD was 1.2% higher to $30,979.

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Staff writer Piero Cingari updated this report midday Monday. 

Photo: Shutterstock