Friends
It was a sell the news kind of day for the stock market, though the averages closed well off their lows for the day. Both Walmart and Home Depot had stellar earnings reports, but because both were trading near all-time highs, market participants decided to take some profits. Another piece of news that investors sold was the announcement that Amazon was going into the pharmacy business. That sent both Walgreens and CVS shares lower just as the likes of Kroger, Target, Walmart and Costco had suffered in the past when Amazon, through the purchase of Whole Foods, got into the grocery business. Of course, all those companies’ shares are trading at or near all-time highs today, so the “Amazon is an industry destroyer” narrative doesn’t always hold.
As for the rest of the market, it appears that the bulls were ready to rest on their laurels after the recent rise in the market indexes. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 166 points to finish the day at 29,783. The S&P 500 was down 17 points to close at 3,609. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 24 points to close at 11,899. Gold was down $7 to trade at $1,879 per ounce, while oil was up $.05 to trade at $41.39 per barrel WTI.
On the economic front, though decent, the retail sales number was a little lighter than expected. After the impressive advance in stocks over the past couple of weeks, a little breather is not unexpected, nor is it unwelcome. Let’s see how the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
