The Dow Jones Industrial Average showed a modest decline in afternoon trading Monday as Wall Street weighed the March jobs report and another big spike in interest rates. Visa, Merck and Chevron outperformed in the Dow Jones today, while Chinese stocks like NetEase, Baidu and Pinduoduo led the Nasdaq 100.
Chinese stocks outperformed after Bloomberg reported that regulators in China are willing to work with U.S. regulators to give full access to auditing reports of U.S.-listed China firms.
Visa stock has rallied furiously off lows, improving its technical picture. The longer it holds above its 200-day moving average, the better. Chevron stock is holding gains smartly as the oil giant takes a breather. Tight, sideways trading from here could present a new entry. Another scenario is that CVX stock pulls back to its 10-week moving average and bounces with conviction. That would also be a buy signal.
Outside The Dow Jones
Health care stocks like Dexcom, Edwards Lifesciences and Iqvia led the S&P 500. Oil and gas stocks also outperformed.
WTI crude oil futures were down around 1% to $99.30/barrel.
U.S. Stock Market Today Overview |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Symbol | Price | Gain/Loss | % Change |
| Dow Jones | (0DJIA) | 34603.57 | -74.78 | -0.22 |
| S&P 500 | (0S&P5) | 4514.07 | -16.34 | -0.36 |
| Nasdaq | (0NDQC ) | 14148.34 | -72.18 | -0.51 |
| Russell 2000 | 205.56 | +0.29 | +0.14 | |
| IBD 50 | 38.68 | -0.41 | -1.05 | |
Last Update: 1:04 PM ET 4/1/2022 |
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Transportation stocks lagged badly in the S&P 500, with names like J.B. Hunt Transport and Norfolk Southern down sharply.
IBD's trucking group was down 6%. The railroad group fell 5%.
Money flowed out of bonds, sending the 2-year Treasury yield up 15 basis points to 2.44%. The 10-year yield moved 5 basis points higher to around 2.37%. The inverted yield curve raises the risk of a recession for the U.S. economy, so it's no surprise to see the transports lagging badly in the stock market today.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by a net 431,000 jobs in March, below the 490,000 consensus estimate, but January and February growth was revised higher by 95,000. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% and the labor force participation rate improved slightly to 62.4%.
Outside the Dow Jones industrials and inside the IBD 50, Darling Ingredients has shown some volatile price swings lately, but it's back in buy range from the 80.31 entry. DAR stock joined Leaderboard on March 21 just ahead of its breakout from a cup-with-handle base.
Rambus was having a tough day in the MarketSmith Growth 250 with a lot of other semiconductor stocks. RMBS stock is close to a test of its 21-day exponential moving average after a recent breakout to nice highs.
Rambus' fabless industry group was down nearly 2%, weighed down by a 6% decline for Qualcomm.
