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Stocks Close Mainly Higher After Late Rally; 3 Breakouts To Ponder

The stock market closed mixed after buyers made a sweep of trading desks in the final 45 minutes of trading. Indexes closed with gains for the week and near all-time highs.

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The Nasdaq composite and the S&P 500 ended 0.2% higher in today's trading. Small caps lagged as the Russell 2000 fell 0.4%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%. Boeing (BA) had one of the biggest negative influences on the Dow after falling 0.7%. United Airlines (UAL) announced it will extend flight cancellations for the grounded Boeing 737 Max until Sept. 4. That's longer than previous estimates that the plane could be flying again at midyear. United's earlier target date for Max flights was June.

Volume Friday edged higher on the NYSE and eased on the Nasdaq, according to early data. The Nasdaq climbed more than 2% for the week, the S&P 500 1.5% and the Dow nearly 1%.

Technology and utilities were among the few sectors higher today. Transportation, energy, telecom and retail were the weakest.

SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) fell 0.2% and dipped back below the 50-day moving average, just two days after getting back above that line. Retail shares were broadly lower after January retail sales came in 0.3% higher, or 0.4% higher excluding autos and gasoline.

"Retail sales were mediocre in January and they reached that disappointing level only because people were able to get out and do some work around the home and visit their favorite restaurants," said economist Joel Naroff. "There was really nothing pretty in this report."

U.S. industrial production also was lackluster, down 0.1% in January for a second straight month of decline. "Despite the fact that there were special factors playing around with the data last month, factory activity is still not picking up as much as one would have expected after the Phase One deal was put to bed," BMO Capital Markets Economic Research economist Jennifer Lee wrote in a report.

A few breakouts added a bit of color to an otherwise drab session.

Real estate was Friday's top-performing S&P sector, and Digital Realty Trust (DLR) broke out of a cup-with-handle base in heavy volume. Shares closed in buy range. The owner and operator of data centers and other technology-focused real estate beat profit estimates but narrowly missed revenue expectations. UBS Group raised the price target to 126 from 120. It closed at 131.50.

Thinly traded Veeco Instruments (VECO) surged past the 16.84 buy point of a lopsided double-bottom base. Volume was more than triple the average after the chip-equipment company beat fourth-quarter expectations.

CoreLogic (CLGX) climbed above the 49.59 buy point of a cup-without-handle base. But volume was well below average, and a flagging relative strength line was another weakness for the breakout.

Juan Carlos Arancibia is the Markets Editor of IBD and oversees our market coverage. Follow him at @IBD_jarancibia

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