There seems to be some buy on the rumor sell on the news going on today.  Yesterday, the Rules Committee voted 7-6 in favor of passing the debt ceiling (the nays were 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans) and paves the way for the deal to go to the House and then Senate.

It could be also that investors are simply profit taking after the recent run up, especially on all things AI (artificial intelligence).  Nvidia (NVDA) is giving back a bit of its huge gains over the past few days, down around 4.5% to $383, and pullback from yesterday’s 52 week high of $419.38.  Chips are also rolling over and getting hit after their great performance of late.

The major indices are all down, but off the lows of the day with 4 of the S&P Sectors in the green. The safe havens are in vogue today with Utilities the best performers and Consumer Discretionary the laggard.

While breadth is negative, and there are more new highs to lows, on the Nasdaq, the up volume exceeds the down.

JOLTS

On the jobs front, the number of vacancies unexpectedly rose to 10.1 million in April, adding 358,000.  The increase in vacancies comes on the heels of last month’s almost 2 year low of 9.475 million.

Key openings include:

• Retail +209,000
• Heathcare and Social Assistance +185,000
• Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities +154,000

The number of new hires was relatively flat at 6.1 million. Total separations decreased to 5.7 million, of which 3.8 million people quit, basically unchanged, while layoffs and discharges decreased to 1.6 million. 

The number will give the Fed more data to mull over, but Friday’s job report will probably have more sway.  And investors are once again trying to gauge the chances of the rate hike at the next FOMC meeting. 

Energy is continuing to get hit, and isnt being helped by China on its weaker than expected data. Treasury yields are down today with the 2-yr note yield trading around 4.43% and the 10-yr note yield around 3.66%.  The greenback is higher to $104.57 against a basket of currencies.