The S&P 500 closed at 7,798.99, up 50.49 points, or 0.65%, on the day. Breadth was solidly positive, with 319 of the index's 502 members finishing higher, and concentration stayed low at 29%, so the equal weight version of the index kept pace, up 0.77%.
Apple led the index with 5.42 points on a 1% gain, Micron added 5.16 points on a 4.23% move, Meta contributed 4.26, Tesla added 4.18 and Microsoft chipped in 4.06. On the other side, Cisco was easily the heaviest single drag anywhere in the market today, subtracting 5.56 points from the S&P on an 8.4% decline. Amazon, Applied Materials, Eli Lilly and Corning rounded out the list of laggards, none of them close to Cisco's size.
The Dow
The Dow closed at 53,840.00, up 69.73 points, or 0.13%, a far smaller move than the S&P's percentage gain. Breadth was mixed, 17 of 30 members higher, and concentration ran hot at 161%, with the equal weight Dow essentially flat at 0.1%. That gap is the day's real Dow story: Salesforce alone added 47.73 points on a 4.15% gain, more than the index's entire net move, followed by Visa, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Apple. Salesforce does not even show up among the S&P's top contributors, a reminder of how much the Dow's price weighting can amplify a single name.
The same Cisco decline that hit the S&P showed up here in far larger form: Cisco subtracted 61.87 points on its 8.4% drop, the single biggest line item in the Dow all day. UnitedHealth, McDonald's, Amazon and JPMorgan added smaller drags behind it.
The Nasdaq 100
The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,084.50, up 341.9 points, or 1.15%, the strongest headline move of the three indices today. Breadth was positive, 70 of 102 members higher, and the equal weight index actually outpaced the cap weighted one at 1.26%, a sign the gain was broadly shared rather than concentrated in a handful of names. Tesla led with 44.56 points on a 3.8% gain, Micron added 39.44, Apple 39.41, Meta 37.21 and Alphabet 31.25.
The index's biggest drag was not Cisco but Space Exploration Technologies, which subtracted 58.05 points on a 3.33% decline, a name absent from both the S&P and Dow lists and the clearest point of divergence from those two indices today. Cisco still weighed here too, down 37.18 points, with Amazon, Applied Materials and PDD Holdings behind it.
The sectors
Sector performance spread widely today, from a 2.09% gain in Communication Services down to a 0.53% loss in Materials. Six of the eleven sectors closed higher, with Real Estate, Consumer Staples and Technology all posting gains above 0.9%, while Energy, Health Care and Industrials sat essentially flat.
Communication Services was the day's strongest sector, up 2.09% and adding 2.30 points, with Meta as its top driver, contributing 0.55 points on a 2.78% gain.
Materials was the weakest sector, down 0.53% and shedding 0.28 points, with Newmont as its top drag, subtracting 0.11 points on a 3.1% decline.
Against the past year, today's S&P 500 move sits at the 79th percentile, a firm but not large session by this tool's threshold. The Nasdaq 100's move ranks higher, at the 84th percentile, just short of qualifying as large, while the Dow's modest 0.13% gain lands at the 53rd percentile, a distinctly average day for that index even as the other two moved with more force.
The numbers
- The S&P 500 closed at 7,798.99, up 50.49 points, or 0.65%, with 319 of 502 members higher.
- The Dow closed at 53,840.00, up 69.73 points, or 0.13%, with 17 of 30 members higher.
- The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,084.50, up 341.9 points, or 1.15%, with 70 of 102 members higher.
- Apple was the S&P 500's top contributor, adding 5.42 points on a 1% gain.
- Cisco was the S&P 500's biggest drag, subtracting 5.56 points on an 8.4% decline, and it also weighed on the Dow by 61.87 points and the Nasdaq 100 by 37.18 points.
- Salesforce was the Dow's top contributor, adding 47.73 points on a 4.15% gain.
- Communication Services was the day's strongest sector, up 2.09%, led by Meta.
- Materials was the day's weakest sector, down 0.53%, led lower by Newmont.
- The S&P 500's move ranked at the 79th percentile versus the past year, and the Nasdaq 100's at the 84th percentile.
From Babylon Burns
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