Stock Market News for Jun 28, 2024
Wall Street higher on Thursday after a choppy session. Market participants were waiting for a key inflation data and other important economic data to be released on Friday. Meanwhile, a slew of key economic data released on Thursday also boosted market participants’ confidence that the U.S. economy is cooling. All three major stock indexes ended in positive territory.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was up 0.1% to close at 39.164.06. The blue-chip index was down more than 100 points at intraday low. Notably, 17 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory while 13 in negative zone.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 17,858.68, rising 0.3% due to good performance by corporate behemoths. The major gainer of the tech-laden index was Zscaler Inc. ZS. The stock price of the world’s leading providers of cloud-based security solutions climbed 5.8%. Zscaler currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The S&P 500 gained 0.1% to finish at 5,482,87. Seven out of the 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index ended in positive territory, while four in negative zone. The Real Estate Select Sector SPDR (XLRE) advanced 0.9% while the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) fell 0.4%.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 2.5% to 12.24 A total of 9.49 billion shares were traded on Thursday, lower than the last 20-session average of 11.74 billion. The NYSE recorded 168 new highs and 78 new lows. The Nasdaq Composite registered 41 new highs and 118 new lows.
Economic Data
The Department of Commerce reported in its final estimate that the U.S. GDP grew at 1.4% in first-quarter 2024 compared with 1.3% reported in the previous estimate. The consensus estimate was also 1.4%. The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation for first-quarter increased to 3.4% from 3.3% reported earlier. Core PCE inflation (excluding volatile food and energy items) rose to 3.7% from 3.6% reported earlier.
In first-quarter 2024, corporate profits plummeted 47.1% quarter-over-quarter compared with a decrease of 21.1% reported earlier. Current production cash flow decreased by $2.9 billion quarter-over-quarter compared with a decline of $2.2 billion reported earlier.
The Department of Labor reported that initial claims decreased 6,000 to 233,000 for the week ended Jun 22, lower-than the consensus estimate of 235,000. Previous week’s data was revised upward by 1,000 to 239,000.
Continuing claims (those who have already received government aids and reported a week behind) increased 18,000 to 1.839 million for the week ended Jun 15. This is the highest level for continuing claims since the week ended Nov 27, 2021. The previous week's level was revised downward by 7,000 from 1.828 million to 1.821 million.
The Department of Commerce reported that durable goods orders increased 0.1% in May, beating the consensus estimate od a decline of 1.5%. The metric for April was revised downward to an increase of 0.2% from 0.7% reported earlier.
However, core (non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft) capital goods orders - a closely watched proxy for business spending plan – tumbled 0.6% in May. The data for April was revised upward to a rise of 0.3% from 0.2% reported earlier.
Core capital goods shipments dropped 0.5% in May after rising 0.4% in April. Non-defense capital goods orders decreased 0.9%in May, marking decline for a second straight month. Shipments of non-defense capital goods fell 1.5% after increasing 2.1% in April. All these key economic data indicate that the economy is cooling.
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