Monday's Market Recap - Dow Modestly Lower, As Nasdaq And S&P Record New Highs.

What is The Premarket Telling Us?

US stock futures a basically flat to lower, two hours before trading begins. Dow futures down 18 points, Nasdaq futures down 10 points, and the S&P futures down 4.75 points. The Consumer Electronic Show, kicks off in Las Vegas, this week, as does the JP Morgan annual Healthcare Conference, in San Francisco.

On The Bond Desk:

The US 10 year bond yield sits at 2.48%, up 0.03% or three basis points.

Currency Desk:

Euro dollar at 1.19

UK Pound at 1.35

Crude Oil:

WTI crude oil futures is higher at $61.75/barrel, up 0.50%

On the Earnings Calendar:

None

In M&A News:

None

What About The Asian And European Markets?

Asian markets closed with gains today; Japan (Nikkei 225) up 0.89%, Shanghai up 0.52%, Hong Kong (Hang Seng) up 0.28%.

European markets also ended their session mostly higher; Germany (DAX) up 0.36%, France CAC 40 up 0.30%, London FTSE 100 down 0.36%.

Market And Sector Dynamics

Stocks opened the trading flat. The Dow lost 5.47 points, Nasdaq down 1.54 point, and the S&P slipped a fraction 0.79 point. Banking and technology stock are down early in the session.

The Dow hung out just below the flat line for the entire morning session, only to regain some of those losses in the afternoon session, although not enough momentum to remain in positive territory, at the close of the day.

Nine of the eleven S&P sectors ended the session with modest gains, led by utilities, basic materials, consumer goods, technology, energy, and industrials outperformed.

Factors Influencing Today's Market

• Crude oil traded moderately higher today. WTI crude oil price closed at $62.24/barrel, up 0.94%

• Investors are anticipating any news on any breakthroughs in the biotechs arena, coming out of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

• Market fundamentals are being repriced to account for recent tax cuts, and its positive effects on corporate earnings, going forward.

• While banks, smaller US corporation, and transport should be the major beneficiaries of the bill. large cap, technology stocks such as Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon has outperformed the others so far in 2018.

• Asian and European markets are also higher.

Market Close Volume Traded And Advance Decline Ratio

At the end of trading stocks were mixed; The Dow lost 12.87 points, Nasdaq gained 20.83 points, and the S&P gained 4.56 points. Total NYSE volume traded, a light 3.03 billion shares. Advancing shares outpaced Declining shares nearly 2:1.

Data Sources: Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN Money, Google Finance, Market Watch, TD Ameritrade, Yahoo Finance.