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Stock Market Today: S&P 500 closes flat ahead of key inflation data, earnings

AuthorYasin Ebrahim
Published 04/07/2024, 07:47 PM
Updated 04/08/2024, 04:22 PM
© Reuters

Investing.com-- The S&P 500 closed flat after swing between gains and losses Monday amid cautious trading ahead of the latest inflation reading as well as the start of the first-quarter earnings season later this week.

At 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT), Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 11 points, or 0.03%, S&P 500 slipped 2 points, or 0.04%, and NASDAQ Composite rose 5 points, or 0.03%.

March CPI looms large

The consumer price index and the core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel costs, for March due Wednesday, are expected to show a cooling to a 3.7% pace in the 12 months through March from from 3.8% the prior month.

As well as U.S. inflation, the Bank of Canada decision, FOMC minutes and Chinese inflation are also slated for Wednesday.

The upcoming FOMC minutes from its March minutes will provide more cues on potential rate cuts as well as plans for the central bank to rein in its quantitative tightening program.

"The March FOMC meeting minutes could reveal more details of the discussion surrounding the balance sheet.We also expect to see some discussion of the supply side improvement," UBS said in a note.

Traders now see a roughly 51% chance for a 25 basis point cut in June, according to the CME Fedwatch tool.

Q1 earnings begin, bank results on tap

Major Wall Street banks will kickoff the earnings season in earnest later this week, with many eager for evidence on whether the upcoming earnings can justify recent run-up in stocks.

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Major U.S. lenders JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) will report earnings on Friday.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and top asset manager BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) will also provide quarterly updates during the week.

"This reporting season, investors will be focused on the breadth of corporate profits vs. strength in the largest TECH+ stocks," UBS said, adding that recent data and softer expectations heading into the earnigns season point to strong Q1 beats ahead.

Boeing slips, Tesla rebounds on Robotaxi update; Taiwan Semi jumps on CHIPS funding

Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock fell 0.8% after an engine cover on a Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) aircraft – a Boeing 737-800 – fell off during takeoff in Denver and struck the wing flap, adding to the aircraft manufacturer’s recent malfunction issues.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) rebounded 5% following its recent malaise after the electric vehicle maker said late Friday that it would unveil its robotaxi design on Aug. 8.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM)'s Arizona unit stuck an agreement with the Commerce Department, securing up to $6.6 billion in funding from the CHIPS and Science Act that looks to bolster domestic chipmaking activity.

Energy stocks stutter as oil prices drop amid Middle East tensions lessen

Energy stocks were flat, pressured by falling oil prices as rising hopes for a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict eased concerns of supply disruption from the oil-rich Middle East.

Teams from Israel and Hamas met in Egypt for renewed ceasefire talks, just days before the Eid holidays this week, while Israel pulled out some troops from southern Gaza.

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APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA), Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), Schlumberger NV (NYSE:SLB) were the among the biggest losers in the energy sector.

Bitcoin tops $72K as halving countdown begins

Cryptostocks including RIOT, MARA, COIN surged as bitcoin topped $72,000 for the first ever, driven by ongoing inflows into Bitcoin-spot exchange traded funds, pointing to healthy demand, and the upcoming halving event next week.

(Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)

Latest comments

The break-even defense mechanism in place today to hold their criminally manufactured, Friday rally. Laughingstock of the investing world.
IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!!
As much as many disbelieve. Inflation through today has been decreasing. It might go up, but not in time to change March's data. February was pretty high, but CPI mom for March dropped significantly. I'm positioned long with TQQQ calls for Wednesday. Will let you know how it works out.
If you look at the SPX daily candles from Mar 21th to now, and ignore the big red Apr 4th candle since to it's being due to Iran saber-rattling rather than economic reasons, it may be a bull flag set up.
Also looks a bit like an expanding triangle, which makes it a coin-toss on whether it'll break to the up or down side.
Thanks for your insight. I'm all for the bull flag!
In my neck of the wood inflation is low and prices except for energy has been about the same for the last 18 months. your right Ami, the professionals are making a lot of money because these markets are very predictable and acting very typical under present economic conditions. As long as you all try to trade using the news and fundamentals, trading for most of you is going to be difficult.
dont try to educate the educated, they lose but they feel comfortable, and knowledgeable.
@David: I suspect a lotta people here posting broken-clock bearish are not themselves actually trading what they're advocating. They know misleading others to be bearish and broke will get them to vote retrumplican.
so many posters angry because they can't figure short term directions of the markets. stop using fundamentals to trade these markets. the markets are always Right, and they will always be willing to take your money if you let greed,fear or anger control your trading.
Inflation will keep rising and rate cut hopes keep getting thinner. Perhaps a 25 point cut on Dec 31...? lol. That should keep stocks alive
Rate hike coming. Inflation is too hot.
Aye … commodities have been on a tear since the December FOMC meeting. Stocks have been soaring for months. The bond market has been hiking rates since the end of last year. Rate cut talk seems out of touch.
And the Ponzi bullish scam. continues
Words came eazy. You don't really know why market is going up. Same time the best professional keep quiet
joe loves bear meat
Don't need to know why to be profitable.
10AM sharp, and the criminally predictable breaker fires to incite another manufactured "rally." Flagrant enough?
SPX closed flat for day.
The Fed uses the PCE not PCI index for it target 2%. Feb PCE was 2.5%. Inflation is not as far off target as most of the article say.
And the Fed fund rate is more than 2x 2.5%.
With 2YR bond yields going up, the Nasdaq some how some way keeps going up. This time must really be different. LOL
Anybody who is buying these handful of multi-trillion tech stocks with P/Es near 100 are insane. The market could drop 50% today and still be over priced.
Right you are. thats why i am buying Trump DJT stock.
seems popular amongst the faithful...great call!
Edging lower mesnwhile nasdaq may gsp up at open
Sure. Rate cuts is all you hear about, but the average Joe needs inflation down big time and rate cuts would probably cause even more. And besides, everyone with more than a single brain cell knows inflation is a lot higher than what the stats say. Furthermore, endless punchbowl, qe, and rate cuts have made the wealthy even wealthier and guess who foots the bill for everything via inflation? Moreso than rate cuts for the rich a lot of people need policies that end the funneling of wealth upwards once and for all. The end result is going to possibly be a depression if policymakers dont get with it now, if not sooner.
Having so much % of the national wealth in the hands of the few is what causes higher inflation rate; tax cuts for the rich is inflationary and is the fault of retrumplicans, not the Fed. There's no such thing as “rate cuts for the rich”, unless you mean Trump using frauds to cheat his creditors into giving him loans at lower-than-market rates.
Here is what rate cuts do: They typically cause asset price inflation--among other things like the misallocation of capital, support of zombie companies, overcapacity and such--but that is for another post. But so ask yourself who owns assets? Do the people living pay check to pay check benefit then? Hardly. In fact, when rates are cut in this environment, it will probably stoke inflation, making daily necessities cost even more.
My point being, rate cuts benefit the holders of assets. But at the same time rate cuts punish the average person because the cost of necessities go up, and these people dont hold assets to compensate. Hence, you get a funneling of money from the bottom to the top. This kind of thing has has been happening for a while now due to QE and ultra low rates--which has made for an incredible amount of inequity. The end result of this kind of thing has always ultimately been collapse, sometimes of countries or entire empires.
Your thoughts on S&P 500? Worth holding unto ?
Yes, for long term and hedged.
Overpriced is creepy
Nvidia is trading at 38x fwd pe. If you young people could just remove your emotion and look objectively at the fundamentals you would realize that Avia is so cheap. It’s ridiculous. All those other companies with 100 XP‘s are not Nvidia. Nvidia is like the discovery of the production of oil. Buy it now before it shoots will above 1000 any day. I just keep buying it. Again look at the fundamentals. And be objective not emotional. It’s extremely cheap.
lol, pumping much at the top? Just you wait how this AI bubble is going to flop soon.
creep? what a joke.
Anybody buying these handful of tech stocks with P/Es near 100 are insane. The market could fall by 50% tomorrow and still be overpriced.
Inflation is poised to rise for a 3rd time since December. Economy is booming, so is oil, which shoot inflation even higher. Debt is unpayable and dedollarization is therefore underway, hence gold is rising. Weekly charts point to a recession/black swan event as they have a 2008, 2018 and 2020 setup right now. Institutions have been selling into the rally harder than in anytime in the past 3 years. Prepare for a HUGE red bar this week, either before or with the CPI and PPI.
red bar??? dream on, US indices are manipulated, reports mean nothing there is too much cash on the sidelines. All dips are bought
Margin debt is also very very high right now, which is yet another red flag, as is CAPE on US equities, near a nosebleed level of about 34, which is put the market squarely in bubble territory. Great post Kelly Mayer. As for the doubters, half of the are probably on margin and dont realize that when the market falls its going to be like throwing lit dynamite into a vat of gasoline!
@chuckKay: No, while SPX rose ~10% from the peak in Dec 2021, margin debt dropped ~20% from Dec 2021.
Investing.com shows Wednesday's CPI Index estimate at 312.18, up from 310.33. That equates to an annual inflation rate of +7.15% If that happens, it's going to hurt.
They want normal people to be hurt though... keeps us in our place
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