Day Traders Diary

6/28/21

The major averages closed mixed with the S&P 500 making new highs boosted by a court win for Facebook and broad strength in tech stocks.

The S&P 500 ticked up 9 points or 0.23% to 4.290 for its third-straight record close, while the Nasdaq rose 140 points or 0.98% to an all-time closing high of 14,500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, slid 150 points to 34,283.27 as energy and transport stocks came under pressure.

Tech stocks were in the driver's seat on Monday, with shares of Apple and Salesforce adding more than 1%. Facebook jumped more than 4% after a U.S. federal court dismissed an antitrust case against the company from the Federal Trade Commission and closed with a market cap above $1 trillion. Semiconductor stocks were a bright spot on Monday, with Nvidia 5% and Broadcom climbing more than 2%.

Aerospace giant Boeing weighed on the Dow, with shares falling more than 3% after regulators told the company it is not likely to receive certification for its long-range aircraft until mid-to-late 2023. CEO Dave Calhoun earlier this month said it expected certification in the fourth-quarter of 2023.

Jeff Mills, the chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust, said recent strength for tech could be part of a continued unwinding of the outperformance of cyclical stocks from earlier in the year.

Monday's moves came as Treasury yields retreated across most maturities, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield sliding to about 1.48%. Yields move inverse of prices.

Stocks finished their best week in months on Friday as investors are growing more confident the current inflation in the U.S. is not a sustained economic threat, but a temporary uptick.

The S&P 500 ended Friday at a closing record high of 4,280.70, while the Dow rose 237 points. While the Nasdaq Composite closed just lower on Friday, it added 2.35% for the week, its best since April 9 and is up 4.45% for the month of June.

The weekly gains came even after the Commerce Department reported that its inflation indicator rose 3.4% in May, the fastest increase since the early 1990s.

Spikes in the core personal consumption expenditures price index can cause heartburn for investors since the Federal Reserve likes to watch it for signs of inflation. Still, the month-over-month rise actually undershot what economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast and reinforced for investors that the economy-wide price increases are likely to be transient and manageable.

A massive, bipartisan infrastructure deal appeared revitalized as of Sunday evening after President Joe Biden clarified on Saturday that he doesn't plan to veto the legislation if it comes without a separate reconciliation bill favored by Democrats. Republican senators then said on Sunday that the deal can move forward.

The president, flanked by a bipartisan group of senators, declared on Thursday that the group had reached a multibillion-dollar deal to improve the nation's roads, bridges, waterways and broadband after weeks of negotiation. Democrats have been pushing for a second bill that would include funding for issues like climate change, child care, health care and education.