Clothing makers and tech stocks were up on Monday.
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The Entrepreneur Index™ was up 0.16 percent on the day, fueled by clothing makers. After getting beaten up at the end of last week, Ralph Lauren posted the biggest gain of the day, rising 3.71 percent. Under Armour Inc. was up 2.09 percent. Gap Inc., which has been trending down as trade negotiations with China have deteriorated, was up 3.48 percent on the day — the third biggest gain on the index.
Tech stocks were also strong. While the Dow and S&P 500 indexes were down 0.5 percent and 0.43 today, respectively, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index had a gain of 0.48 percent.
Most technology stocks on the Entrepreneur Index™ were up, with Netflix (-0.94 percent) being the notable exception. However, the company reported strong earnings last week and initially spiked more than 5 percent. Adobe Systems Inc. posted the biggest gain of the tech stocks on the index, rising 2.56 percent. Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc., both of which report earnings on Thursday, were also up 1.43 percent and 0.43 percent respectively.
Investors continue to look through very good corporate earnings results, worried more about the possibility that this represents peak earnings for the economic cycle. More than 80 percent of companies reporting so far are beating earnings estimates, but only about 60 percent are topping revenue projections, according to research firm FactSet. The results of tech giants Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc. on Thursday could have an outsized effect on investor sentiment going forward.
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Stocks sensitive to the economy and interest rates continued to struggle. Capital One Financial fell 3.37 percent, the biggest decline on the index today, and investment bank Jefferies Financial Group was off 2.71 percent. Asset managers BlackRock Inc. (-2.31 percent) and Franklin Resources (-2.42 percent) were both down sharply.
D.R. Horton Inc. fell 2.64 percent, and is now down 32 percent in the year to date. The homebuilder recently lowered its forecast of home sales and orders for 2018, because of rising mortgage rates. Oil and gas pipeline operator Kinder Morgan was down 3.0 percent today.
Real estate stocks were also broadly lower. Equity Residential (-2.05 percent), Apartment and Investment Management Co (-1.76 percent), Boston Properties (-1.66 percent) and Kimco Realty (-1.45 percent), all had declines on the day.
Several stocks that were punished last week posted decent gains today. O’Reilly Automotive Inc. was up 1.46 percent, Estee Lauder Companies rose 0.59 percent and PACCAR Inc. ended the trading day up 0.45 percent.