Wall Street edges lower as value, growth stocks fall; defensives gain

The New York Stock Exchange is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

  • Retail sales rise unexpectedly in June
  • Energy set for biggest sectoral declines for the week
  • Moderna hits record high on S&P 500 addition
  • Indexes down: Dow 0.16%, S&P 0.11%, Nasdaq 0.09%

July 16 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes fell on Friday, with growth and value stocks falling as investors turned risk-averse towards the end of the week, while gains in defensive parts of the market kept declines at bay.

Markets have largely cheered a steady recovery in the labor market this year, but concerns about higher inflation due to a faster-than-expected rebound has hurt sentiment, with investors oscillating between “value” and tech-heavy “growth” names in the past few sessions.

Economy-sensitive S&P 500 energy (.SPNY), financials (.SPSY) and industrials (.SPLRCI) led declines among the 11 major sector indexes by afternoon trading. The energy sector is down over 6% so far for the week.

Technology stocks (.SPLRCT) also fell on Friday, while defensive utilities (.SPLRCU), consumer staples (.SPLRCS) and real estate (.SPLRCR) gained. Real estate also hit a record.

“It’s been hard for the market to gain here from these already elevated prices,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

“Investors are more concerned right now about missing the upside of this market than they are about a sell off. In the near term, all they’re really doing is shifting between stocks and not taking money out of the overall market.”

Data from the Commerce Department showed retail sales rebounded 0.6% last month, as spending is shifting back to services, bolstering expectations that economic growth accelerated in the second quarter. read more

After earnings from big banks this week, focus will shift to quarterly results from technology-focused companies including International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), Netflix Inc (NFLX.O), Verizon Communications (VZ.N), AT&T (T.N), Intel Corp (INTC.O), Snap Inc (SNAP.N) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).

“We got a lot of optimism for the earnings, but then you’ve got fear of inflation and that’s kind of giving us a whipsaw market,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC.

“The tech earnings starting next week can make the market forget about those fears (inflation).”

At 12:18 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was down 56.65 points, or 0.16%, at 34,930.37, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was down 4.83 points, or 0.11%, at 4,355.20 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was down 12.88 points, or 0.09%, at 14,530.25.

Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) jumped 7.9% to scale new highs after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the drugmaker will join the S&P 500 index (.SPX) as of the start of trading on July 21, replacing Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN.O). read more

Cintas Corp (CTAS.O) rose 3.8% to the top of the S&P 500 index after brokerages raised their price targets on the business service provider’s stock following its fourth-quarter results.

Didi Global Inc (DIDI.N) fell 3.4% as China sent state officials from at least seven departments to the ride-hailing giant for a cybersecurity review. read more

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 47 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 37 new highs and 77 new lows.

Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

source: reuters.com