The Nasdaq today ended an eight-day win streak, as a late rebound wasn't enough to prevent losses for the stock market.
XThe Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%. It closed off session lows, but still ended in the middle part of the day's price range.
The composite also closed below the 200-day moving average. The 200-day line has been a point of contention for the Nasdaq, even as other major indexes have already climbed above their own 200-day lines. In general, healthy bull markets show the major averages trading above their 200-day lines and leading them higher in price.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also lost 0.4%. Declining stocks led advancers by 8-to-5 on the NYSE and by 7-to-5 on the Nasdaq.
Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100, fell 0.4% and also closed below the 200-day line, despite a good day for Microsoft (MSFT). The stock rose 2.1% and ended back above the 108 buy point of a cup with handle.
The small-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.5%. Volume fell slightly from Wednesday's total in the major exchanges, according to early figures.
Leading stocks outperformed, however. The Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) closed 0.1% higher. Certainly, Kirkland Lake Gold (KL) helped the IBD 50 avoid a drop. The gold mining stock leaped about 8% to a new high after it raised its production guidance for the year. Kirkland was set to report earnings after the close.
Dine Brands (DIN) broke out of a cup base with a 95.19 buy point, gapping up in heavy volume, after the restaurant chain beat profit views. The parent of IHOP and Applebee's reported a 254% surge in earnings to $1.70 a share, while sales rose 21% to $214.2 million.
With no fresh headlines on trade talks and few major earnings reports, the market focused on weak economic reports.
Durable goods orders rose 1.2%, up 0.1% excluding transportation manufacturing. "Durable goods orders rose solidly in December. However, much of that gain was derived from a 28.4% surge in nondefense aircraft orders," said economist Joel Naroff. "The rest of the economy, excluding Boeing (BA), didn't do nearly as well."
Most troubling, Naroff noted, was another sharp drop in an indicator of private sector investment spending. It suggests that any business spending boom from tax cuts has dissipated.
Existing home sales surprisingly fell 1.2% in January to 4.94 million units, the third straight month of declines and the lowest since November 2015. Yet, IBD's homebuilders' industry group was one of Thursday's best, up 1.6%.
"The steady drop in borrowing costs has not been enough to draw more homebuyers into the housing market," BMO Capital Markets Chief Economist Douglas Porter said in a report. "With a patient Fed, mortgage rates shouldn't be rising markedly ... And the latest survey of homebuilders was more upbeat."
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