Stocks Swoon To Start Trading Week (SPY, QQQQ, GLD, USO, TLT, UUP, ORCL, HPQ)
Stocks got off to a rocky start at the beginning of the trading week on Tuesday as fears about a re-flaring of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis weighed on risk assets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107 points to close at 10,340.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) shed 1.13% to finish at $109.64. Volume was ridiculously light, with only around 142 million SPY shares trading hands versus a 3-month daily average of 228.5 million.
The light volume has been a hallmark of this market, but normally on triple digit down days, more participants have come into the marketplace. A lot of traders are still on vacation, so today's low volume figures may not mean much, but the move lower lacked any real conviction judging by the number of shares traded.
The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ: QQQQ), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.67% to close at $45.70. The broader Nasdaq market shed 1.11% and closed at 2,209. The outperformance of the Nasdaq 100 was in large part due to a 5.87% move higher in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) which announced they have hired former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd as their co-president.
Gold was very strong today, and hit new all-time highs. COMEX gold futures jumped around $8.20 to $1,259. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE: GLD) added 0.69% to close New York Stock Exchange trading at $122.70. Look for the all time high of $123.56 in the GLD to be tested soon.
The crude oil market continued to be incredibly volatile. Crude sold off in early trade, then rallied all the way back to positive in the afternoon before pulling back again. The price of oil is highly sensitive to investor sentiment regarding the economic outlook, and the price action suggests deep uncertainty.
NYMEX crude futures are currently trading 0.68% lower at $74.09 on CME's GLOBEX platform. The United States Oil Fund ETF (NYSE: USO) closed New York Stock Exchange trading down 0.97% at $32.77. In the after hours, the USO has added 0.24% to $32.85.
If the stock market and crude oil seemingly lacked strong conviction today, the Treasury market did not. Treasuries rallied throughout the day, which is a sign of investor nervousness. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE: TLT) surged 2.05% to $105.70. The yield on the 10-year note fell 11.52 basis point to 2.5836%.
The U.S. Dollar was a major story today. The dollar was weaker against other safe haven currencies such as the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc, but was much stronger against riskier currencies. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP), which tracks the performance of the dollar versus a basket of foreign currencies, rose 1.05% to $24.04. Investors were fleeing the EUR/USD pair in particular, which fell to $1.2681 over renewed Eurozone fears.
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