U.S. markets showed some strength for the 4th-straight session following a strong jobs report and improving housing numbers along with solid corporate earnings.
U.S. stock indexes capped a wobbly day of trading with mostly slight declines Thursday as the market’s three-day winning streak stalled.
Communications, industrial and health care stocks outweighed gains in financial and technology companies. Several retailers and home-builders also declined.
Prior resistance levels from February and last October remain in play and ahead of Friday’s quadruple witching.
This event can be slightly volatile with traders squaring up weekly, monthly, and quarterly option positions that can add extra liquidity to the market.
However, the major indexes are showing strong gains for the week and overall volatility remains relaxed with the VIX closing near fresh 2019.
Communications, industrial and health care stocks outweighed gains in financial and technology companies.
Home=builder stocks were mostly trading lower following the report. Hovnanian Enterprises dropped 2.5 percent.
Investors spent Thursday in a wait-and-see mode, keeping a close watch on global trade issues and continuing to mostly brush off the chaos surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union, its key trading bloc.
The S&P 500 has been holding within 2,750 and 2,850 points the past couple of weeks and isn’t likely to break out of that range until there’s a major change in the trade talks, Federal Reserve policy or other another major market-moving development
The Commerce Department said sales of new U.S. homes slumped 6.9 percent in January, a possible sign that would-be buyers paused during the government shutdown even as mortgage rates continued to decline.
The report also showed sales prices declined 3.8 percent.
All the best,
Roger Scott.