The S&P 500 closed at 7,764.64, unchanged on the day, a move of 0%. The flat headline hid a weak session underneath it: only 160 of the index's 500 members finished higher, and the equal-weight version of the index fell 0.65%, evidence that whatever lift there was came from a small group of large names rather than the market broadly.
Meta Platforms added 1.9 points, Palantir Technologies 1.75, Palo Alto Networks 1.68, CrowdStrike 1.4, and ExxonMobil 1.2, the index's five largest sources of lift. Working against them, Alphabet's Class C shares subtracted 7.1 points, the single biggest drag in the index, followed by Broadcom at -5.41, Micron Technology at -3.25, Advanced Micro Devices at -1.76, and Eli Lilly at -1.64. Those five losses roughly offset the gains from the cybersecurity and social-media names above them, which is how a session with real winners and real losers still nets out to zero.
The Dow
The Dow closed at 51,864.00, up 0.31 points, a move of 0%, essentially matching the S&P 500's flat finish. Breadth data showed zero of the Dow's 30 members registering as advancers on the day, and none of its listed top or bottom movers, including 3M, American Express, Amgen, Apple, and Boeing on the upside, or Alphabet, Sherwin-Williams, Nvidia, Amazon, and Walmart on the downside, contributed a measurable point total in either direction.
That is the clearest divergence from the S&P 500's story. The broader index leaned on Meta, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike, none of which sit in the Dow, to offset Alphabet's and Broadcom's drag. The Dow had no equivalent group of software winners to lean on, and its own version of Alphabet and Amazon showed no comparable point impact, leaving the blue-chip index sitting still rather than pulled in either direction.
The Nasdaq 100
The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,732.40, flat on the day at a move of 0%. Breadth here was the thinnest of the three indexes, with only 37 of 101 members higher, and the equal-weight measure fell 0.62%, a sign the flat close depended heavily on a few large positions.
Meta Platforms contributed 12.4 points, Palantir Technologies 10.6, Palo Alto Networks 9.94, CrowdStrike 8.26, and Tesla 3.13. On the other side, Alphabet subtracted 98.63 points, by far the largest single drag anywhere in today's data, with Space Exploration Technologies down 56.01, Broadcom down 29.58, Micron down 17.79, and Advanced Micro Devices down 9.7. Alphabet's weight in the Nasdaq 100 magnified its 3.58% decline into a far larger point hit than it produced in the S&P 500, and Space Exploration Technologies, which does not appear among the S&P 500's movers at all, was the Nasdaq's second-biggest laggard.
The sectors
Ten of the eleven sectors finished lower, with only Energy in positive territory. The spread ran from Energy's 0.99% gain to Utilities' 1.88% decline, a wide gap for a session in which the three major indexes barely moved.
Energy was the day's strongest sector, up 0.99%, or 0.61 points, with ExxonMobil the top driver at 0.32 points on a 1.62% gain.
Utilities was the weakest sector, down 1.88%, or 0.76 points, with NextEra Energy the top driver of the decline at -0.15 points on a 2.76% drop. Real Estate and Consumer Discretionary were close behind, down 1.51% and 1.50% respectively.
None of today's index moves qualify as large by the usual standard. The S&P 500 sits at the 46th percentile of moves over the past year, the Dow at the 47th, and the Nasdaq 100 at the 46th, all squarely in the middle of the range and consistent with a session that closed flat at the index level while shifting money underneath the surface.
The numbers
- The S&P 500 closed at 7,764.64, unchanged on the day, a move of 0%.
- The Dow closed at 51,864.00, up 0.31 points, a move of 0%.
- The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,732.40, flat on the day at a move of 0%.
- Breadth in the S&P 500 was weak, with only 160 of 500 members higher and the equal-weight index down 0.65%.
- Alphabet's Class C shares were the day's biggest drag, subtracting 7.1 points from the S&P 500 and 98.63 points from the Nasdaq 100.
- Meta Platforms was the S&P 500's top contributor, adding 1.9 points on a 1.02% gain.
- Energy was the day's strongest sector, up 0.99%, led by ExxonMobil.
- Utilities was the day's weakest sector, down 1.88%, led lower by NextEra Energy.
- The S&P 500's move ranks in the 46th percentile of the past year, a middling session by historical standards.
From Babylon Burns
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