Stocks Staying Focused on Central Banks This Week

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U.S. equities hovered near the unchanged line on Monday as investors and traders seemed more enamored by the solar eclipse than anything happening on Wall Street.

In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.1% and the Russell 2000 finished the day down 0.1%. Treasury bonds were stronger, the dollar was weaker, gold gained 0.4%, and crude oil fell 2.8%.


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Breadth was mixed on light volume, at just 86% of the NYSE’s 30-day average. At the sector level, REITs led the way with a 1.1% gain while energy was the laggard, down 0.6%. Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) gained 9.9% after announcing a $600 million secondary offering.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU) gained 7.7% on reports China’s Great Wall Motor is interested in acquiring Jeep.

Footwear retailers got hit hard with Finish Line Inc (NYSE:FINL) down 10.2% on a downgrade from UBS on the risks from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE:FL) dropped 7.5%.

Conclusion


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Technically, the big news remains that the Russell 2000 small-cap index remains well below its 200-day moving average and is testing critical support from its March-June trading range.

On the opposite side of this is the safe-haven bid coming into gold, which is now outperforming stocks on a year-to-date basis.

All of this comes ahead of the start of the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium. There were reports that the European Central Bank is set to hint at a start of the tapering process for its quantitative easing program. And Fed chairman Janet Yellen is set to discuss financial stability risks on Friday — the subject of a discussion on equity price valuations, according to the Fed’s latest meeting minutes.

The overall takeaway: Central banks are moving to tighten policy. And we’re going to learn more about their plans this week; which isn’t a subject stock bulls really want to talk about.

Check out Serge Berger’s Trade of the Day for Aug. 22.

Today’s Trading Landscape

To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here.

For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here.

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Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/08/stocks-mixed-amid-focus-on-central-banks/.

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