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Mixed Market Sets Fresh Record Highs on S&P, Nasdaq

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Another closing bell, another record high for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq today, the first trading day of a new week. The S&P 500 followed up its strongest week since February, +2.7%, with another +0.23% boost to 4290.

For its part, the Nasdaq swept away with the day compared to the other major indexes, +0.98%, to a nice, round 14.500 — also a new record high. The Dow fell -0.44% on the trade out of cyclicals, and the small-cap Russell 2000 dropped -0.52%.

Today’s trading resembled more what we’d been seeing for the past few months: something of a “zero-sum” game with investors rotating in and out of growth and value stocks, subsequently. Last week, everything was up; this began to obscure earlier efforts to keep indexes from spinning out of control, and we had been holding open the possibility this morning that buying might continue across the board today.

But it didn’t, partly on the Dow catalyst that Boeing’s (BA - Free Report) latest jet, the 777x, is unlikely to be approved for commercial use until mid-2023. This sent the airplane maker down 3.4% on the day (though still +18% year to date).

On the Nasdaq, Facebook became the latest company to cross over the $1 trillion market cap threshold. This followed a judge’s decision to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) complaint against Facebook’s policies. The stock grew 4.2% on the day.

Energy fared the worst among major sectors today, -3.5%, on a dip in oil prices ahead of another OPEC+ meeting later in the week. Oil prices are back trading at highs not seen in about three years, though somewhere in the middle of the range since the early 1970s — the first time we saw a big spike in the commodity that did not immediately turn back around. Financials and Industrials were also among the worst performers today.

Tech, on the other hard, was +1.1%, followed by Communication Services at +0.83% and Utilities at +0.61%. So perhaps it’s a tad simplistic to say today’s market activity was purely the result of a rotation back into growth. Utilities, in particular, depict a less “risk off” appetite than a normal bid-up in tech would tend to indicate. We’ll let this week’s trading ahead of the holiday weekend shake out to see which way the wind is blowing.

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