Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market closed with losses across the board. The major indices settled off session lows with declines ranging from 0.6% to 1.7%.

The downside move follows two consecutive winning sessions for the the S&P 500 (-1.1%) and Nasdaq Composite (-1.7%) and the gains haven't been fully erased. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are still 1.7% and 1.2% higher, respectively, than Thursday's close.

Mega cap stocks led the downturn today with names like Tesla (TSLA 225.31, -12.70, -5.3%), NVIDIA (NVDA 115.52, -4.00, -3.4%), Meta Platforms (META 582.36, -22.54, -3.7%), and Alphabet (GOOG 162.67, -3.90, -2.3%).

Investors were digesting a batch of headlines related to NVIDIA amid its GTC event, but shares didn't seem fazed by the news. Meanwhile, Alphabet announced a $32 billion cash acquisition of Wiz, Inc., a cloud security platform company.

Geopolitical angst was also cited as a factor driving today's downside move, yet price action in commodities and Treasuries didn't reflect that. Treasuries are seen as a safe-haven during geopolitical unrest, yet the 10-yr yield, which dropped three basis points to 4.28%, and the 2-yr yield, which dropped one basis point to 4.04%, made modest moves.

Oil prices often rise as tensions increase in the Middle East due to concerns about supply disruptions, but WTI crude oil futures dropped 1.2% to $66.78/bbl. 

President Trump's call with Russian President Putin also garnered a muted response from stocks and bonds. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a read out of the call, saying "leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace."

This morning's economic data was mixed with housing starts increasing in February while import and export prices reflected an inflationary shift in the year-over-year readings.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -1.7% YTD
• S&P 500: -4.5% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: -5.6% YTD
• Nasdaq Composite: -9.4% YTD
• Russell 2000: -8.1% YTD

Reviewing today's economic data:

• February Housing Starts 1.501 mln (Briefing.com consensus 1.385 mln); Prior was revised to 1.350 mln from 1.366 mln, February Building Permits 1.456 mln (Briefing.com consensus 1.450 mln); Prior was revised to 1.473 mln from 1.483 mln
  • The key takeaway from the report is that starts activity was bolstered by the return of better weather, which was reflected in the 18.3% increase in housing starts in the South region (they were down 23.0% in January).
• February Export Prices 0.1%; Prior 1.3%
• February Export Prices ex-ag. 0.1%; Prior 1.5%
• February Import Prices 0.4%; Prior was revised to 0.4% from 0.3%
• February Import Prices ex-oil 0.3%; Prior 0.1%
• February Industrial Production 0.7% (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%); Prior was revised to 0.3% from 0.5%, February Capacity Utilization 78.2% (Briefing.com consensus 77.7%); Prior was revised to 77.7% from 77.8%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that there was a solid increase in manufacturing output that was led by an 8.5% jump in the index for motor vehicles and parts, which likely had some tariff frontrunning involved. Motor vehicle assemblies increased 11.5% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 10.35 million.

Looking ahead to Wednesday, market participants receive the following data:

• 7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior 11.2%)
• 10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior +1.45 mln)
• 16:00 ET: January Net Long-Term TIC Flows (prior $72.0 bln)

Also, the March FOMC decision is out at 2:00 ET.