U.S. Stocks Showing A Lack Of Direction In Morning Trading

Following the strong upward move seen last Friday, stocks are showing a lack of direction in morning trading on Monday. The major averages have spent the morning bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest gains. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up just 3.00 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 14,704.92, the Dow is up 130.56 points or 0.4 percent at 35,000.72 and the S&P 500 is up 11.65 points or 0.3 percent at 4,381.20.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders express some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets after the major averages ended the previous session at new record closing highs.

A lack of major U.S. economic data may also be keeping traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of reports on consumer and producer price inflation, industrial production and retail sales in the coming days.

Congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is also likely to attract attention along with the Fed’s Beige Book.

Traders may also be reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the start of earnings season, with several big-name companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), PepsiCo (PEP), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and Delta Airlines (DAL) are among the companies due to report their results.

Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.

Pharmaceutical and chemical stocks are seeing some strength in morning trading, while modest weakness is visible among networking and computer hardware stocks.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 2.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is just above the unchanged line, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are up by 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries are showing a lack of direction following the pullback seen last Friday. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by less than a basis point at 1.361 percent.