U.S. Stocks Little Changed As Initial Buying Interest Fades

(RTTNews) - After failing to sustain an initial move to the upside, stocks have given back ground over the course of the trading session on Friday. The major averages have pulled back off their highs of the session and have recently been lingering near the unchanged line.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest losses. The Dow is down 146.73 points or 0.3 percent at 44,337.76, the Nasdaq is down 18.34 points or 0.1 percent at 20,867.31 and the S&P 500 is down 2.04 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 6,295.32.

The initial strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from yesterday's upbeat U.S. economic data, which helped ease concerns about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade wars.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, leading to some profit taking after the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs.

The subsequent pullback also comes amid a slump by shares of Netflix (NFLX), with the streaming giant tumbling by 5.2 percent to its lowest intraday level in over a month.

The drop by Netflix comes after the company reported better than expected second quarter results but warned its operating margin in the second half will be lower than the first half.

Shares of American Express (AXP) and 3M (MMM) have also shown notable moves to the downside even though the companies reported second quarter results that exceeded estimates.

Meanwhile, traders have largely shrugged off a report from the University of Michigan showing a modest improvement by U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of July.

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index climbed to 61.8 in July after surging to 60.7 in June. Economists had expected the index to rise to 61.5.

With the slightly bigger than expected increase, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 64.7 in February.

Sector News

Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.

However, considerable strength is visible among utilities stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain being posted by the Dow Jones Utility Average. The average has reached its best intraday level in seven months.

Brokerage stocks have also shown a strong move to the upside, with the NYSE Arca Securities Broker/Dealer Index climbing by 1.2 percent.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) has helped lead the sector higher, surging by 6.2 percent after reporting better than expected second quarter results.

Natural gas stocks are also seeing notable strength amid an increase by the price of the commodity, while airline and biotechnology stocks have moved to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index increased by 0.5 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the German DAX Index is down by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is nearly unchanged and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved to the upside after ending the previous session roughly flat. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 2.8 basis points at 4.435 percent.