July 23, Market Update

Financial shares helped to nudge the market a tick higher on Monday, underpinned by a steepening of the yield curve. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively, but the Dow underperformed, shedding 0.1%. Action was range-bound, with the S&P 500 keeping between -0.2% and +0.2%.

Most sectors finished Monday in negative territory -- eight of eleven to be exact -- but losses were modest for the most part, and the three top-performing groups -- financials, technology, and health care -- just so happen to be heavily-weighted, comprising over 50% of the broader market combined.
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The financial sector easily finished atop the sector standings, rallying 1.3%. Its outperformance came amid a selloff in the U.S. Treasury market that resulted in a five-point jump in the 2-10 spread; the 2-yr yield climbed two basis points to 2.62%, and the benchmark 10-yr yield shot up seven basis points to 2.97% -- its highest level in over a month.

In corporate news, Alphabet (or Google as most people know it) posted strong earnings with revenues up 25.6% year-over-year and profit of $3.2 billion. The profit would have been $8.2 billion, if not for the recent $5 billion fine that Google received from the European commission. The fine did not seem to bother most investors, with Google up 5% in after-hours trading.

Source: Briefing.com
Graph: Google Finance