US close: Weakness in commodities and biotech weighs on Wall Street

Wall Street ended the session and the week firmly in negative territory as investors reacted to a weak batch of corporate results and a spate of weaker data both at home and abroad.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day lower by 0.92% to 17,568.53, while the S&P 500 retreated 1.07% to finish at 2,079.65 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.12%, closing at 5,088.63.

For the week, the Dow Industrials lost a cumulative 2.9% and the S&P 500 slipped 2.2%, although the latter did manage to set a new record intraday high on Monday.

Figures out overnight revealed Chinese manufacturing sector activity was at a 15-month low in July, which dragged commodities and their associated stocks broadly lower.

By Industrial groups the worst performers were: Non-ferrous metals (-9.9%), Biotechnology (-5.14%) and Industrial metals (-4.04%).

Ahead of next week's Federal Reserve policy meeting the central bank released its own staff's forecasts prepared for the 16-17 June FOMC. The decision to publish the confidential materials was taken after it was learned that they had been inadvertently leaked.

It was revealed that Fed staff had projected an average value for the value of the Fed Funds rate in the fourth quarter of 2015 of 0.35%. In the opinion of Barclays that might be consistent with either a Fed hike in September, followed by a pause in December, or two Fed hikes before the year was out.

As of 24 July economists canvassed by Bloomberg were putting the odds of a September hike at 50%.

Amazon jumps, Biogen in the dumps

On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrials had turned negative for the year in the wake of disappointing earnings from Caterpillar - linked to weakness in China - and American Express, which joined IBM and Apple in the list of companies whose results were met by a lukewarm reception.

“The strong dollar has been mentioned a lot in the earnings statements of the big US corporates,” said CMC Markets’ analyst Jasper Lawler.

“But there are also clearly some issues over domestic demand looking at the poor retail sales numbers as well as demand overseas from China with its manufacturing sector seen slumping again in July.”

In company news, Amazon jumped 9.8% after the e-commerce giant reported an unexpected profit and a sharp hike in sales for the second quarter late on Thursday.

Shares in Biogen on the other hand cratered 22% after the company cut its 2015 profit forecasts.

Starbucks rose 1.29% after the coffee retailer reported an 18% jump in quarterly revenue, exceeding analysts’ expectations.

Health benefit group Anthem declined 2.08% after announcing it had agreed an agreement to purchase sector peer Cigna in a $54.2bn cash and stock deal.

Weak data, but economists stick to their forecasts

Sales of new single-family homes in the US dropped 6.8% in June to an annual rate of 482,000, the slowest pace in seven months, according to figures released by the Commerce Department.

Despite those figures Barclays kept its tracking estimate for second quarter US GDP growth at 3.0%.

Meanwhile, activity at US factories picked up slightly in July according to Markit’s purchasing managers’ index, which rose to a reading of 53.8 points from a 20-month low of 53.6 in June.

The dollar was broadly flat against the yen, but rose 0.03% and 0.08% against the pound and the euro respectively, while gold futures edged higher by 0.38% to $1,099.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures slid 0.99% to to $47.97 a barrel on NYMEX.

S&P 500 - Risers
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $529.42 +9.80%
C.R. Bard Inc. (BCR) $187.75 +4.63%
Visa Inc. (V) $74.80 +4.25%
Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) $27.54 +3.96%
Unum Group (UNM) $37.61 +3.90%
Principal Financial Group (PFG) $54.46 +3.77%
Torchmark Corp. (TMK) $62.16 +3.55%
FLIR Systems Inc. (FLIR) $30.77 +3.01%
NiSource Inc. (NI) $17.03 +2.96%
Stryker Corp. (SYK) $100.97 +2.77%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Biogen Inc (BIIB) $300.03 -22.08%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $80.86 -13.40%
Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) $78.86 -13.12%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $12.29 -9.90%
Robert Half International Inc. (RHI) $52.55 -6.34%
Helmerich & Payne Inc. (HP) $55.92 -6.19%
Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) $18.55 -6.08%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $1.24 -6.06%
Windstream Holdings Inc (WIN) $4.57 -5.97%
CIGNA Corp. (CI) $145.72 -5.60%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Visa Inc. (V) $74.80 +4.25%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $28.40 +1.39%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $118.91 +0.09%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $56.94 -2.63%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $90.60 -2.52%
General Electric Co. (GE) $25.75 -1.94%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $28.06 -1.87%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $99.31 -1.81%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $207.35 -1.75%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $34.26 -1.50%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $79.94 -1.48%
American Express Co. (AXP) $75.90 -1.44%
Boeing Co. (BA) $144.06 -1.40%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $529.42 +9.80%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) $33.57 +9.24%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $36.91 +1.99%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $96.95 +1.58%
DIRECTV (DTV) $93.55 +1.48%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $28.40 +1.39%
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc Class A (FOXA) $33.66 +1.29%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $57.29 +1.29%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $26.18 +0.93%
Vimpelcom Ltd Ads (VIP) $5.29 +0.57%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Biogen Inc (BIIB) $300.03 -22.08%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $80.86 -13.40%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $112.83 -4.11%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $125.50 -4.09%
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $105.70 -3.49%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $158.59 -3.36%