The S&P 500 closed at 7,413.18, up 1.2 points, or 0.02%, on the day. Breadth was positive, with 326 of the index's 502 members finishing higher, but the index-level move was about as close to flat as a session gets.
The flatness masked a real split underneath. Apple added 6.57 points on a 1.17% gain, Microsoft added 6.27 points on a 1.94% gain, and Alphabet's two share classes contributed 4.55 and 4.02 points on gains of 2.13% and 2.34%; together the two Alphabet classes added 8.57 points. Palantir chipped in 2.15 points on a 7% jump. On the other side, Nvidia alone subtracted 30.64 points on a 4.99% decline, with AMD down 5.4 points, Sandisk down 3.06 points on an 11.02% drop, Micron down 2.79 points, and Lam Research down 2.07 points. The index landed almost exactly between the two forces.
The Dow
The Dow closed at 52,210.08, up 262.83 points, or 0.51%, with 23 of its 30 members finishing higher. This is where the day's gains actually showed up. Salesforce led with 59.08 points on a 6.07% jump, Sherwin-Williams added 58.01 points on a 3.07% gain, American Express contributed 54.8 points, Microsoft added 43.98 points, and Alphabet added 40.54 points. The top five gainers accounted for 65% of the index's move, a narrow concentration.
The drag side told a different story from the S&P: Caterpillar was the single biggest weight, down 91.83 points on a 1.74% decline, followed by Goldman Sachs down 77.27 points, Nvidia down 61.4 points, Chevron down 28.47 points, and UnitedHealth down 18.43 points. Where the S&P was pinned between tech winners and chip losers, the Dow found enough strength elsewhere, Salesforce, Sherwin-Williams, American Express, to push through industrial and financial weakness.
The Nasdaq 100
The Nasdaq 100 closed at 28,039.21, down 89.13 points, or 0.32%, with 66 of its 103 members finishing higher despite the negative index move. This is the clearest divergence of the session.
Nvidia's drag was far larger here than at the S&P level, subtracting 428.47 points on the same 4.99% decline. AMD subtracted 75.46 points, ASML subtracted 67.27 points on a 5.8% drop, Sandisk subtracted 40.19 points, and Micron subtracted 40.17 points. Against that, Alphabet's two classes added 156.8 and 142.96 points, together contributing 299.76 points, Apple added 97.93 points, Microsoft added 94.22 points, and Palantir added 35.38 points. The same names lifting the S&P and the Dow were present here too, they simply were not enough to offset the semiconductor weight this index carries.
The sectors
Sector performance ranged from Consumer Staples at the top to Energy at the bottom, with seven of eleven sectors closing higher.
Consumer Staples was the day's strongest sector, up 1.46%, or 1.23 points, with Walmart the top driver at 0.18 points on a 2.07% gain.
Energy was the weakest, down 2.08%, or 1.24 points, with Chevron the top drag at 0.22 points on a 2.46% decline. Technology also finished lower, down 0.89%, with Nvidia again the top driver of the decline.
None of today's index moves were large by this measure. The Dow's 0.51% gain sits in the 75th percentile of the past year, the S&P 500's 0.02% move sits in the 46th percentile, and the Nasdaq 100's 0.32% decline sits in the 32nd percentile. This was an ordinary session in magnitude, with the story sitting entirely in how the three indices diverged rather than in how far any of them moved.
The numbers
- The S&P 500 closed at 7,413.18, up 1.2 points, or 0.02%, with 326 of 502 members higher.
- The Dow closed at 52,210.08, up 262.83 points, or 0.51%, with 23 of 30 members higher.
- The Nasdaq 100 closed at 28,039.21, down 89.13 points, or 0.32%, with 66 of 103 members higher.
- Salesforce was the single biggest points contributor to the Dow, adding 59.08 points on a 6.07% gain.
- Nvidia was the single biggest points drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, subtracting 30.64 points and 428.47 points respectively.
- Consumer Staples was the day's strongest sector, up 1.46%, led by Walmart's 2.07% gain.
- Energy was the day's weakest sector, down 2.08%, dragged by Chevron's 2.46% decline.
- The Dow's move ranked in the 75th percentile of the past year, the S&P 500's in the 46th, and the Nasdaq 100's in the 32nd.
From Babylon Burns
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