Stocks have shown a lack of direction over the course of morning trading on Monday, extending the lackluster performance seen last Friday. The major averages have spent the morning bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
Currently, the major averages are turning in a mixed performance. While the Nasdaq is down 7.96 points or 0.1 percent at 12,064.50, the Dow is up 73.90 points or 0.2 percent at 33,882.86 and the S&P 500 is up 7.01 points or 0.2 percent at 4,140.53.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders remain reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from several big name companies in the coming days.
Tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) are among a slew of well-known companies due to report their quarterly results this week.
“America’s S&P 500 has added $2.4 trillion in market capitalization so far in 2023 and just six stocks – Meta Platforms, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google’s parent Alphabet and Microsoft has provided $1.6 trillion of that gain between them, or two-thirds of the total,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
He added, “After a lukewarm set of figures from Netflix last week, and a sharp year-on-year drop in first-quarter profits from another tech darling, Tesla, investors will be looking to five of the MAANAM sextet (or FAANGM group as they once were) to deliver good results and upbeat outlooks and help U.S. equity markets maintain the run that began last October.”
A lack of major U.S. economic data may also be keeping some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of several key reports.
Reports on consumer confidence, new home sales, durable goods orders, first quarter GDP and personal income and spending are likely to attract attention in the coming days.
The personal income and spending report includes a reading on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve and could impact the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Fed meeting next week.
Meanwhile, shares of Coca-Cola (KO) have moved modestly higher after the beverage giant reported first quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.
Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.
Oil service stocks have moved sharply higher, however, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surging by 2.3 percent.
The rally by oil service stocks comes amid an increase by the price of crude oil, as crude for June delivery is climbing $0.72 to $78.59 a barrel.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Monday. While Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index bucked the downtrend and inched up by 0.1 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.8 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by 0.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets are little changed on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is just below the unchanged line, the German DAX Index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index are both up by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the upside after coming under pressure last Friday. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 2.7 basis points at 3.543 percent.
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