{"id":7953,"date":"2021-03-12T16:59:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/03\/12\/major-averages-continue-to-turn-in-mixed-performance-in-mid-day-trading\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T16:59:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:59:20","slug":"major-averages-continue-to-turn-in-mixed-performance-in-mid-day-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2021\/03\/12\/major-averages-continue-to-turn-in-mixed-performance-in-mid-day-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Averages Continue To Turn In Mixed Performance In Mid-Day Trading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"ctl00_CPI_dvBody\">\n<p> After moving in opposite directions early in the session, the major U.S. stock indexes continue to turn in a mixed performance in mid-day trading on Friday. The Dow is hovering in positive territory, while the broader Nasdaq and S&amp;P 500 remain stuck in the red.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the Dow is up 133.76 points or 0.4 percent at 32,619.35 after reaching a new record intraday high. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is down 159.83 points or 1.2 percent at 13,238.84 and the S&amp;P 500 is down 14.47 points or 0.4 percent at 3,924.87.<\/p>\n<p>The mixed performance on Wall Street comes amid a jump in bond yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note surging back above 1.6 percent to its highest levels in over a year.<\/p>\n<p>The increase in yields comes after President Joe Biden directed states to make all adults eligible for a <span class=\"landLinks\">coronavirus<\/span> vaccine by May 1st.<\/p>\n<p>The vaccine news combined with the new $1.9 trillion stimulus package has generated optimism about the economic outlook, reducing the appeal of bonds. Bond yields move in opposite direction to prices.<\/p>\n<p>Yields saw further upside following the release of a report from the University of Michigan showing U.S. consumer sentiment improved by much more than expected in the month of March.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index jumped to 83.0 in March after dipping to 76.8 in February. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 78.5.<\/p>\n<p>With the much bigger than expected increase, the consumer sentiment index reached its highest level since hitting 89.1 in March of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>A separate report released by the Labor Department released showed U.S. producer prices increased in line with economist estimates on the month of February.<\/p>\n<p>The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand climbed by 0.5 percent in February after spiking by 1.3 percent in January. The price growth matched expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Excluding prices for food, energy, and trade services, core producer prices edged up by 0.2 percent in February following a 1.2 percent jump in January.<\/p>\n<p>The report also showed the annual rate of growth in producer prices surged up to 2.8 percent in February from 1.7 percent in January.<\/p>\n<p>Core producer prices in February were up by 2.2 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting an uptick from the 2.0 percent growth in January.<\/p>\n<p>Sector News<\/p>\n<p>Semiconductor stocks have moved sharply lower over the course of the session, resulting in a 2 percent slump by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.<\/p>\n<p>Considerable weakness also remains visible among software stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent drop by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, banking stocks continue to turn in a strong performance in mid-day trading, with the KBW Bank Index climbing by 1.8 percent to a record intraday high.<\/p>\n<p>Airline stocks have also moved notably higher on the day, resulting in a 1.8 percent advance by the NYSE Arca Airline Index. <\/p>\n<p>Other Markets<\/p>\n<p>In overseas trading, stock <span class=\"landLinks\">markets<\/span> across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Friday. Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 Index surged up by 1.7 percent, while China&#8217;s Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.5 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index edged up by 0.2 percent and the U.K.&#8217;s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.<\/p>\n<p>In the bond market, treasuries have climbed off their worst levels but continue to see notable weakness. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 9.4 basis points at 1.621 percent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n        window.fbAsyncInit = function () {\n            FB.init({\n                status: true,\n                cookie: true,\n                xfbml: true\n            });\n        };\n        (function (d) {\n            var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk'; if (d.getElementById(id)) { return; }\n            js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true;\n            js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js\";\n            d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js);\n        }(document));\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>Major Averages Continue To Turn In Mixed Performance In Mid-Day Trading<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2021-03-12 16:59:20<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After moving in opposite directions early in the session, the major U.S. stock indexes continue to turn in a mixed performance in mid-day trading on Friday. The Dow is hovering&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}