Stock Market Summary - Week Ending March 8, 2019
Stocks closed lower overall this week in response to signs of a slowing global economy, rising oil prices, and few surprises on the earnings front. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped -576.08 points or -2.21% to close at 25,450.24 on Friday while the S&P 500 (SPX) dropped -60.53 point or -2.16%, closing at 2,743.07. The Russell 2000 (RUT) declined an overall -67.76 points or -4.26% to close at 1,521.88 and the Nasdaq (COMP) fell -187.21 points for a -2.46% decline to close at 7,408.14. The S&P 100 (OEX) slid -21.39 points or -1.74% to finish the week at 1,211.04 and the VIX showed a slight increase in investor concerns by rising 2.48 or 18.28% to 16.05 at the close of markets on Friday.
Corporate Gainers
Discount retailer Big Lots Inc (BIG) surged 15.04% overall for the week after posting solid earnings for its fiscal 4th quarter. After hitting sales estimates of $1.6 billion, the company reported earnings-per-share of $2.68 which soundly beat projections of $2.30 per share.
Costco Wholesale Corp (COST) shares had a boost of 3.82% last week after the warehouse retail company reported strong 2nd quarter earnings of $2.01 per share, easily surpassing analysts' expectations of $1.69.
H & R Block Inc (HRB) gained 3.36% as the company's losses appear to be narrowing by 58 cents which is better than the estimated 53 cents. The company has historically posted losses in the first three quarters of its fiscal year.
Corporate Sliders
Kroger Co (KR) tumbled -12.67% last week as 4th quarter 2018 earnings revealed disappointing results. Revenue, net income, and earnings-per-share all fell significantly below the same quarter of the previous year.
Devon Energy Corp (DVN) plummeted -11.41% after the oil and gas production company announced earlier in the week that it will be laying off approximately 200 employees with additional layoffs expected in the future.
Micron Technology Inc (MU) slid -7.05%, following a generalized decline in valuation in the chip sector. Analysts have noted a definite drop in pricing of DRAM and NAND over the past few months.
Economic Indicators of Note
New Home Sales for December 2018 came in with stronger-than-expected results by jumping 3.7% to 621,000 compared to the expected level of 590,000.
International Trade for December shows a further deepening of the trade deficit of -$59.8 billion when compared to the expected deficit of -$57.6 billion.
Crude oil supplies for the March 1 week were up by 7.1 million barrels to 452.9 million. Gasoline supplies were down by 4.2 million barrels to 250.7 milion and distillates down by 2.4 million barrels to 136.0 million.
Initial jobless claims for the week of March 2nd were down by 3,000 to 223,000 while continuing claimsin lagging data for the February 23 week were down 50,000 to to 1.755 million. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.8%.
Housing Starts for January made a stronger-than-expected showing at 1.230 million. Analysts were expecting a consensus of 1.170 million.
Upcoming Economic Events
Market Movers:
Retail Sales-Monday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
CPI-Tuesday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
Durable Goods Orders-Wednesday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
PPI-FD-Wedneday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
EIA Petroleum Status Reports-Wednesday @ 10:30 a.m. ET
Jobless Claims-Thursday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
New Home Sales-Thursday @ 10:00 a.m. ET
Industrial Production-Friday @ 9:15 a.m. ET
Events Worth Noting
Business Inventories-Monday @ 10:00 a.m. ET
Construction Spending-Wednesday @ 10:00 a.m. ET
Import and Export Prices-Thursday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
EIA Natural Gas Report-Thursday @ 10:30 a.m. ET
Fed Balance Sheet-Thursday @ 4:30 p.m. ET
Empire State Mfg Survey-Friday @ 8:30 a.m. ET
Consumer Sentiment-Friday @ 10:00 a.m. ET
JOLTS-Friday @ 10:00 a.m. ET
Treasury International Capital-Friday @ 4:00 p.m. ET
Index Trading Levels For Week Ending 3/08/2019
DJIA 25450.24 (Dow Jones)
SPX 2743.07 (S&P 500)
RUT 1521.88 (Russell 2000)
COMP 7408.14 (Nasdaq)
OEX 1211.04 (S&P 100)
VIX 16.05 (CBOE)