Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Major markets and ETFs continued to cool (correct) today on a weak housing report, oil slump
Major markets and index ETFs generally cooled today, as yesterday’s correction continued amidst a weak existing home sales report and a hissing oil bubble. The S&P 500 lost .19% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost .35%; the Russell 2000 and the NASDAQ Composite gained .08% and .04% respectively. Index ETFs followed along as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) lost .16%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) lost .30%, the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) lost .03%, and the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) gained .01%.
What little gains the NASDAQ and NASDAQ:QQQ accomplished today (say FLAT) were likely driven by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and their over 3 million iPad 3 sales since the tablet’s release last Friday. All in all, a pretty flat day for major indexes and their respective ETFs.
Today’s lackluster existing home sales report did not help matters either, as existing home sales slid from 4.63 million last month to 4.59 million this month, again reaffirming the housing sector the remaining Achilles heel for any real time US economic recovery.
Oil began to hiss today too, as perhaps the oil bubble, ripe with speculation and Iran troubles, has become too large. Oil price per barrel dropped .35% to land at just under $107, while the United States Oil Fund LP ETF (NYSEARCA:USO) oddly gained .57%. Although NYSEARCA:USO added nearly .6% today, it is clear that the oil ETF and oil in general has flattened and is indeed moving sideways and could be due for a correction in the near future.
Bottom Line: All in all, a pretty cool day on Wall Street as indexes and ETFs swapped minutiae percentages on the trading floor. After the S&P’s recent roar, this kind of action (or lack thereof) is usually expected; markets will likely begin to gyrate again with any large piece of news such as Greek Armageddon or another Dr. Ben intervention.
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