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, such as Apple's AAPL+ Free Alerts and Amazon's AMZN+ Free Alerts 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, with the last such streak occurring between April and August 2020. The major three indices, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, and the Dow, 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.
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. The relative performance of the average stock is building, and the market's advance/decline line traded at a new 52-week high. 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. International stocks were also participating in the year's rally, with most major global benchmarks now in bull market territory.
In midday trading on Monday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust was flat at $457, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF was unchanged at $354, and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ+ Free Alerts held steady at $383. 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 from 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.
Companies reporting after the close include Lattice Semiconductor Corp., Yum China Holdings, Inc., Western Digital Corp., Vornado Realty Trust, Transocean Ltd., Artista Networks, Inc., J&J Snack Foods Corp., and Avis Budget Group, Inc.
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