The Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 held modest gains in afternoon trading Monday as trade tension with China stayed on the front burner. Home Depot (HD) and Nike (NKE) outperformed in the Dow, while Tesla stock led the Nasdaq 100.
XShares of Tesla (TSLA) jumped 6% to 279.50, helped by positive comments from Baird. The analyst maintained an overweight rating with a 411 price target.
The Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 were up about 0.3%, and the Dow Jones industrial average was mostly flat. Volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq was tracking about 10% lower than Friday's levels. Light volume was mostly due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
The Nasdaq slumped 2.5% last week, but it wasn't clear that institutions were the driving force behind the selling as weekly volume fell from the prior week's level. Still, the Nasdaq currently shows five distribution days, or higher-volume declines, in recent weeks. Days like these are a sign of at least some institutional selling.
In stock market results today, Apple (AAPL) weighed on the Dow Jones, falling 1.3%. Analysts debated how $200 billion of China tariffs would affect the tech bellwether. What seems certain is that Apple will be forced to raise prices on some of its products if the U.S. and China can't come to an agreement.
Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM) also lagged in the Dow with losses of 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.
Tesla Stock Recovers
Tesla stock was in recovery mode Monday, but it's still damaged goods from a technical perspective after a flurry of negative headlines around the company. Shares plunged nearly 13% last week. Tesla was recently 28% off its recent high.
Among the day's gainers, Leaderboard name Roku (ROKU) soared 6% in strong turnover. There was not news to account for the move.
Meanwhile, three executive departures from three different companies made headlines.
After jumping nearly 6% last week, shares of CBS (CBS) gave back 1.4% on news CEO Les Moonves is resigning due to sexual harassment charges. Joseph Ainniello was named interim CEO until a successor is found. The stock's price action Monday seemed to be a case of "sell the news" after shares of CBS soared nearly 6% last week.
Shares of Alibaba (BABA) dropped 4% on news Executive Chairman Jack Ma is leaving the company next year. Despite robust fundamentals, Alibaba remains on a downtrend. Its now about 28% off its high.
Snap (SNAP) stock slipped nearly 3% on news Imran Khan, the company's chief strategy officer, is leaving.
Hurricane Florence Winners
As Hurricane Florence gathered steam in the Atlantic, a couple of hurricane-related stocks rose. Generac (GNRC) cleared a flat base with a 56.74 entry. Shares jumped nearly 7% to 59.42. Generac makes power generators. Meanwhile, PGT Innovations (PGTI), a maker of impact resistance doors and windows, hit a new high, rising 4% to 26.38. It was featured earlier this month in the IBD 50 Stocks To Watch column.
PGT was a top gainer in the IBD 50, along with Medpace (MEDP), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Abiomed (ABMD), Control4 (CTRL) and Alarm.com (ALRM).
The Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) gained just over 1%.
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