Stocks declined Tuesday after Dr. Anthony Fauci told senators the U.S. shouldn’t rush to reopen the economy, as that could risk unleashing a second wave of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
- The S&P 500 lost 2.05%.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.89%
- The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.06%
- With financial services names under some pressure today, Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) was the Dow’s worst performer, shedding 3.07%.
Although Fauci, who is recently running afoul of the White House on reopening commentary, warned against lax views on restarting the economy, but New York is expected to press forward with scaled reopening plans this week.
Furthermore, it was reported earlier today that Louisiana will reopen casinos next week. It’s no Vegas, but the Pelican State is one of the larger casino markets in the country, indicating this is a step in the right direction in terms of getting the economy moving again.
In lieu of major stock-specific news for Dow components, it was a mostly choppy day with market participants focused on reopening chatter. With that, 22 of 30 Dow stocks were lower in late trading.
Throwing in the Towel
With financial stocks out of favor today, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) closed lower. The banking giant dropped out of the bidding for privately-held Personal Capital, a fintech/startup type company that offers platforms to financial advisors. Personal Capital isn’t yet profitable, which perhaps deterred JPM from closing the deal.
Dinged by a Downgrade
It wasn’t an awful day for oil prices, but Chevron (NYSE:CVX) closed lower after UBS lowered its rating on the Dow component from “buy” to “neutral.”
“Our downgrade reflects the share reaching near our price target and reflecting our 2021 scenario of an oil price recovery to $47.50/bbl,” said the bank. “This comes after outstanding share price performance in context – shares are down only 22% YTD versus global major peers down an average 38% (12 month comparison 22% vs.41%) and Brent down ~55%.”
More 737 Max News
Boeing (NYSE:BA) is once again in the spotlight due to headlines related to the 737 Max jet. As noted here yesterday, the company said it’s planning to resume production of that controversial plane next month.
Which airlines Boeing might sell those planes to presents a more complicated story, given reports earlier today that about 110 orders for the 737 Max were scrapped last month.
Refocusing on iPhones
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn’t do much of anything — good or bad — today, but investors are refocusing on the 5G iPhone. There’s plenty of speculation about when that phone will come to market due to Covid-19 disruptions in Apple supply chains, but it’s likely to be sometime in the last two months of the year.
The good news for Apple is that Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimates that 350 million iPhone users haven’t upgraded in 3.5 years, and that many of them could purchase new phones over the next 18 to 24 months.
Bottom Line on the Dow Jones Today
There are some economic data points coming later in the week, including another round of jobless claims due out Thursday, but investors may want to pay attention to some data coming from China.
On Friday, China releases retail sales and industrial production data for April. Obviously, the American and Chinese economies aren’t the same, but there’s talk the latter is starting to spring back to life after being hit by the coronavirus and these numbers could be instructive for how the U.S. recovery could shape up.
Todd Shriber has been an InvestorPlace contributor since 2014. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.