If you’re scoring this one at home, the ultimate slip in Monday’s stock market seems like a minor consolidation after stocks just spent nine days running up more than 5% from a recent low.
And while that may prove to be the case — the session certainly started with a lot more hope.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 23 points to close at 12,198, the Nasdaq fell 12 points to 2731 and the S&P 500 dropped 4 points to 1310.
Within the first hour of Monday’s trade, however, stocks had been intent on extending their move higher. The S&P 500 had touched 1320 at one point, while the Dow was working on 50-point gain.
And then the fade set in. Lay it at the feet of tech stocks, which took more of a breather on Monday following their outperformance during the market’s push of the past week and a half. As one leading example, eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) was off more than 4% on heavy volume following news that it would buy GSI Commerce (NASDAQ:GSIC).
Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) was down another 1.6%, as the stock continues to reel from a weak profit forecast delivered last Wednesay.
But the jig also was up at Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) which had enjoyed a rebound amid the broader market’s recent runup, but fell 2.2% on Monday.
With one of the market’s main driving sectors of late collapsing into the red, it was difficult for the broader market to do anything but join in — even on a day that offered oil prices falling below $104 a barrel and a modest move lower in bond prices, which kicked the 10-year note yield back up to 3.45%.
Transportation stocks, however, did take advantage: with the Dow Jones Transportation Index closing 0.4% higher and in a clear uptrend since the middle of March. FedEx (NYSE:FDX) added 3% and AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR), parent of American Airlines rose 2.5%.
The issue for bulls, of course, is whether the stumble into Monday’s closing bell was a sign of the market’s inability to rally higher on Monday or for some term beyond that. With a week expected to be light on significant corporate and economic data until Friday’s employment report, modest gains and/or losses may be a typical result for the next few days.
