S&P 500, Nasdaq eke out 3rd day of gains, but November rally hits speed bump

How stocks traded

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average
  DJIA
  shed 45.74 points, or 0.1%, to end at 34,945.47, snapping a 4-day win streak.

• The S&P 500
  SPX
  gained 5.36 points, or 0.1%, closing at 4,508.24, after earlier flipping between small gains and losses.

• Nasdaq Composite
  COMP
  climbed 9.84 points, or 0.1%, finishing at 14,113.67.

The S&P 500 closed at its highest level since Sept. 1 on Thursday, while it was the Nasdaq’s highest finish since Aug. 1, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

What drove markets

Investors largely took a breather on Thursday to digest weaker economic data and a rally that has carried the Nasdaq nearly 10% higher since the beginning of November.

The bullish tone allowed the tech-heavy Nasdaq index to exit correction territory earlier in the week. The S&P 500 has been knocking on the door of an exit too, but needs to close at 4,529.11 or higher to officially mark a rebound of at least 10% from its recent low.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital, said it was unsurprising that stocks would struggle for momentum, given the recent strong rally, in a phone interview. “Today, we also had a slew of macro news, which most of it was basically negative in terms of economic activity but good for the Fed, in that the economy is slowing, exactly what it wants it to do.”

A raft of earnings from major retailers were another focus, including from Walmart
WMT,
-8.09%,
Macy’s
M,
+5.71%
and Williams-Sonoma
WSM,
+6.23%.
Shares of Walmart fell 8.1%, pulling down on the Dow, following comments from Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive, indicating that he expects to see a U.S. deflation trend in the coming months.

See: Walmart’s shareholders may have anticipated today’s selloff — if they’d been watching its bonds

Poorly received results from Cisco Systems
CSCO,
-9.83%
saw the networking company’s stock drop 9.8% on Thursday, making it another leading Dow decliner.

A broader rally in unloved corners of the market also paused, including for the small-cap Russell 2000 index,
RUT
which fell 1.5% Thursday.

“Everyone’s taking a breath from the almost frantic buying pace we’ve seen over the past week,” JJ Kinahan, chief executive of IG North America, which owns Tastytrade, told MarketWatch.

Investors also heard Thursday from U.S. central bankers, with Fed governor Lisa Cook saying that inflation can keep declining without a sharp spike in unemployment, but warning that a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy “is not assured.” Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said easing monetary policy “is just not part of the conversation right now,” in an interview with CNBC.

Recent signs of cooling inflation, rising layoffs and slowing job creation helped bolster expectations that the Fed may have delivered its last interest-rate hike of the cycle in July.

Stocks struggled for direction, even though the 10-year Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
retreated to 4.444%, down 9.1 basis points on the day. Yields, which move inversely to bond prices, have fallen from a 16-year high of about 5%, reached last month.

In economic data, weekly jobless-claims data released Thursday showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped to a three-month high, the latest sign of a cooling labor market.

In other economic news, the Philadelphia Fed said Thursday that its gauge of regional business activity improved slightly to negative 5.9 in November from negative 9 in the prior month. A Fed report on industrial production showed a drop of 0.6% in October, larger than economists had expected. Investors also digested the latest release from the home-builder sentiment index, which declined to 34 from 40 in November.

Companies in focus

• Amazon.com Inc.
  AMZN,
  -0.26%
  shares shed 0.3% after the company detailed plans to launch online vehicle sales next year, starting with Hyundai Motor Co.
  005380,
  -0.22%
  brands. CarMax Inc.
  KMX,
  -5.56%
  and Carvana Co.
  CVNA,
  -5.27%
  shares fell 5.6% and 5.3%, respectively.

• Shares of Macy’s were 5.7% higher after the department-store chain reported a surprise third-quarter profit that beat expectations.

• U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba Group
  BABA,
  -9.14%
   fell 9.1% after the company posted solid earnings but issued a warning about the impact of U.S. export controls.

Jamie Chisholm contributed.