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Equities Roundup: Consumer Staples, Materials Outperforming

US STOCKS
  • Stocks are trading firmer, off midday lows as indexes recover appr half of Wednesday's post-FOMC sell-off. Currently, the DJIA is up 206.44 points (0.54%) at 38352.25, S&P E-Minis up 32.5 points (0.67%) at 4902.5, Nasdaq up 110.5 points (0.7%) at 15272.26.
  • Factors in play: carry-over weakness in regional bank shares helped Treasury futures rally back to late December highs which simultaneously pushed projected rate cut chances higher and underpinned stocks.
  • NY Community Bancorp fell over 40% yesterday, traded -14% again today after they cut it's dividend and posted a loss on purchase of collapsed Signature Bank shares. Meanwhile KBW Regional Banking Index is down -5.13% at the moment.
  • Financials sector shares are weighed down by larger banks amid some concern over spreading risks: Zion Bancorp -9.14%, M&T Bank -6.62%, Comerica -6.18%, Keycorp -6.09%.
  • Beneficiaries of the move in rates: Consumer Staples and Materials sector shares led gainers: food & beverage and retail distributors supported the former: Altria Group +3.17%, Brown Forman +2.6%, Constellation Brands +2.45% while Dollar Tree gained 2.96%, Target +2.27%.
  • Materials were buoyed by mining and chemical shares: Corteva rallying 18.5% after reporting solid Q4 earnings late Wednesday and announcing a $1B share buyback. FMC +7.42%, while Newmont Corp gained 2.84%.
  • Looking ahead: corporate earnings docket after the close: Meta, US Steel, Amazon, Apple, Clorox and Eastman Chemicals.

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