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By Nicholas
Jasinski | Thursday, October 22 Directionless. U.S.
stocks initially continued to struggle for direction today, bouncing around
the break-even line for most of the morning. Several uncertainties loom large
over the market, including the presidential and congressional elections,
the implications of Covid-19 cases rising again in the U.S. and Europe,
and the latest from fiscal stimulus negotiations in Washington. In recent
weeks, stock indexes have bounced around from day to day driven by
incremental news and headlines on all of those fronts, but haven't had a
prevailing direction since the late summer. The S&P
500 is
even with its levels near the end of August. Individual
trading sessions have shown plenty of volatility during that time, and
market pricing suggests they'll continue to be. The Cboe Volatility
Index, or VIX, has been hovering just below 30
for most of the past month. Different
days recently have also had different groups of winners. Today saw
value-oriented stocks take the lead in the afternoon, pushing major
indexes solidly into the green. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.5%, after dipping between
positive and negative territory for most of the morning. The S&P 500 rose
0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite added less than 0.2% on a poor day for
technology shares. The S&P
500 technology sector closed down 0.4%, the second-worst in the index. PayPal
Holdings dropped 4.3%, Adobe lost
2.5%, Salesforce.com fell 1.8%, and Apple slipped
1%. Growth areas of the market more generally underperformed today, with
consumer discretionary another laggard. Beaten-up
energy shares, on the other hand, led the market with a 4.1% rise. Exxon
Mobil and Chevron added
3.7% and 2.4%, respectively. Financials—and banks in particular, another
unloved group—were also big gainers, closed up 2%. JPMorgan Chase stock gained 3.5%, Bank
of America added 3.4%, and Morgan
Stanley rose 2.8%. There wasn't
much of a catalyst for the value rally, perhaps other than the fact that
growth areas of the market did better yesterday. Perhaps tomorrow will be
their day again. Just don't expect a steady and consistent direction for
the market until some near-term uncertainties have been resolved one way or
the other. |
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DJIA: +0.54% to 28,363.66 The Hot
Stock: Align
Technology +35% Best Sector:
Energy +4.1% |
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