- Title: S&P 500 rises as tech gains offset cyclical declines
- Date: 19th August 2021
- Summary: PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 19, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) STOCKS BUZZ ANALYST AT THOMSON REUTERS, TERENCE GABRIEL, SAYING: "Thursday's trading seems to be continuing a theme that we've been seeing since early July, which is that the S&P 500 has been underperforming a composite of its defensive bond proxy sector. So when you compare the trading action in the overall S&P 500 to a basket of its staples, utilities and real estate sectors, we're seeing underperformance on the part of the overall benchmark index against that group. And that can be a sign of a divergence that is not healthy for the market, overall. We're seeing a lot of weakness in sectors like steel, copper, the economically sensitive groups. And again, these defensive groups are holding up better. So it's a question of whether or not finally there are concerns here over the economy moving forward, concerns about the Fed, which are going to be a major hindrance for the market to continue to make advances when it's roughly at all time highs and stretched, relatively, say on a valuation basis. So we saw jobless claims numbers come out. They were actually a little better than expected at 348k, but that's still well above the 200k to 250k range, which is generally associated with healthy labor market churn. So despite the 17-month low in jobless claims, that still is not down to the levels that ideally you'd like to see it at. The other interesting aspect to that is, is that it does suggest that the labor market report that's going to come out in early September on jobs might be robust. But the concern there would be that it would add to the idea that the Fed was going to begin tapering asset purchases this year, and that's something that definitely seems to be unsettling to the market."
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2021 21:08
- Keywords: Federal Reserve S&P 500 Wall Street investors monetary stimulus tech
- Location: NEW YORK, AND PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, AND PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economic Events,Equities Markets,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA002EQY1ZK7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The S&P 500 rose in choppy trading on Thursday (August 19), with gains in tech shares countering losses in cyclical sectors, as investors took the pulse of the economic rebound and gauged when the Federal Reserve might temper its monetary stimulus.
Tech also supported the Nasdaq, while economically sensitive sectors such as energy and materials were weak.
Data showed that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a 17-month low last week, pointing to another month of robust job growth.
Stocks had sold off sharply a day earlier after minutes from the Fed's July meeting showed officials felt it was possible that a key benchmark for decreasing support "could be reached this year."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.57 points, or 0.19%, to 34,894.12, the S&P 500 gained 5.53 points, or 0.13%, to 4,405.8 and the Nasdaq Composite added 15.87 points, or 0.11%, to 14,541.79.
(Production: Hyeongmi Kim, Fred Katayama, Roselle Chen) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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