Stocks edged higher as energy and tech led: Thursday recap

U.S. stocks opened the fourth quarter with a quiet, slightly higher session Thursday, the first trading day of October. The S&P 500 added 14.91 points, or 0.19%, to close at 7,666.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.51 points, or 0.04%, to 50,926.56. The Nasdaq Composite gained 10.53 points, also 0.04%, to finish at 26,871.60. The moves were small. For the Dow and the Nasdaq, the day barely registered, leaving both gauges close to where they ended the third quarter a day earlier.

Underneath those flat index readings, sectors pulled in clearly different directions. Energy led. The sector’s benchmark exchange-traded fund rose 1.95%, far ahead of the rest of the market. Technology came next with a 1.05% gain, and industrials added 0.99%. Utilities rose 0.61%, and financials nudged up 0.11%. The groups doing the most work were the economically sensitive ones, and that handful of advancers gave the broad tape its slight upward tilt.

The weaker half was defensive and rate-sensitive. Health care fell 1.32%, the softest of the eleven sectors. Communication services dropped 0.93%, and real estate slid 0.56%. Consumer staples and materials each eased about a third of a percent. Consumer discretionary finished close to unchanged, off 0.03%. The spread between the best and worst groups ran to more than three percentage points. A calm index number can hide that kind of rotation underneath it.

Smaller companies had a better day than the headline averages. The Russell 2000 exchange-traded fund rose 0.41%, while the S&P 500 tracker gained 0.18%, a slight edge for the market’s smaller names. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 fund did better still, up 0.31%, in step with technology’s lead on the sector board. The pattern pointed to somewhat broader participation than the headline index moves alone would suggest. Volatility stayed subdued. The Cboe Volatility Index sat at 16.39, a level that reflects little demand for downside protection among options traders. In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.26%.

The week looks heavier than Thursday alone. The third quarter closed on Wednesday, and over the past five trading days the broad market has lost ground. The S&P 500 exchange-traded fund is down 0.42% across that stretch, and the Dow proxy has slipped 0.79%. The small-cap fund has fallen 0.94%. The Nasdaq proxy is the outlier, holding a 0.13% gain as technology has done much of the lifting. By sector over the five sessions, communication services has been the weakest, down 3.55%, while technology has held up best, up 1.59%. Thursday’s small advance trimmed the week’s losses without erasing them.

The calendar turns to the labor market next. The monthly U.S. employment report is scheduled for Friday morning, with nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate on the docket. It lands before the opening bell. Factory orders are also due Friday, and the ISM services index follows early next week. Several Federal Reserve officials are slated to speak over the remainder of the week. After a session that gave the market little direction, those releases headline a busy stretch on the economic calendar.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.