Monday, March 18th, 2024

Off session highs which came in the earlier morning trading hours, market indices closed mostly in the green today: the Dow finished +75 points, +0.20%, while the Nasdaq grew +130 points, +0.82%, and the S&P 500 splitting the difference, +0.63%. Only the small-cap Russell 2000 was down today, -0.60% — it’s fifth down-day in the past seven trading sessions. The Russell is now less than 1% positive year to date; compare that with the Nasdaq, which is up +9%.

NVIDIA (NVDA Quick QuoteNVDA - Free Report) CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang has just now take the stage at this year’s GTC conference, delivering the keynote address in his fresh leather motorcycle jacket. Without getting many details of the speech, Huang is describing new partnerships and/or associations with Ansys (ANSS Quick QuoteANSS - Free Report) , Synopsis (SNPS Quick QuoteSNPS - Free Report) and Cadence Design Systems (CDNS Quick QuoteCDNS - Free Report) ; all three A.I. design companies are up in late trading, by +3.4%, +2.2% and +3%, respectively.

Earlier today, we saw the release of the latest confidence survey from the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) for February, which came in at 51 — the highest since July and the fourth-straight month higher. The 50 level, as with many industry indices, denotes growth from loss, and this is the first time we’ve been there since last summer. Mortgage rates averaging below 7% once again is likely a big part of homebuilder confidence, with the Northeast currently the strongest region at 59, followed by the West at 50 (the South and Midwest came in at 43 and 41, respectively).

Tomorrow morning we’ll see more housing data, with Housing Starts and Building Permits reports expected before the bell, also for February. Starts are expected to come in well ahead of the previous month’s lackluster 1.33 million to 1.45 million, while permits — a proxy for future starts — are expected to rise slightly, from 1.47 million reported a month ago to 1.5 million expected on Tuesday. Again, slightly lower mortgage rates look to be having a positive impact on the housing market, but we’ll wait until the data actually comes in before emphasizing this.

Finally, Tesla (TSLA Quick QuoteTSLA - Free Report) caught a bid today, +6% in the regular-trading session for its best trading day in more than a month. News that Tesla’s Y series of EVs will see price hikes across the board has given investors a reason to dive back into shares; Tesla stock is also -30% year to date, so there is still a ways to go yet. Tesla reports Q1 deliveries in a couple weeks; currently, analysts expect the company will have delivered just over 2 million EVs for the quarter.

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