Markets: News  

The major indices started today's session on a lower note, as expected, but what wasn't expected were a lot of aberrant stock prices for a number of NYSE-listed stocks. The aberrations led almost instantly to volatility halts with market participants/observers wondering what was happening. The official explanation turned out to be an "exchange-related issue." That issue, fortunately, got resolved quickly and stocks soon returned to trading in a normal manner. The NYSE will declare a number of trades as erroneous from this morning and some trades will be busted that traded outside of trading bands, according to CNBC.After the early volatility, today's trade was largely mixed as investors digested a slew of mixed earnings news. Also, buyers were likely somewhat reluctant to show strong conviction after a big run recently. Entering today, the Nasdaq Composite was up 8.6% for the year and the S&P 500 was up 4.7%.Considering the big gains recently, along with some disappointing earnings/guidance from the likes of 3M (MMM 115.00, -7.62, -6.2%), Verizon (VZ 40.42, +0.79, +2.0%), Union Pacific (UNP 203.18, -6.95, -3.3%), and General Electric (GE 80.70, +0.93, +1.2%), the stock market held up fairly well today and showed nice resilience to selling efforts.The S&P 500 was able to maintain its posture above the 4,000 level for most of the session, albeit on very light volume at the NYSE, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was able to close with a gain of 0.3%. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) fell 0.3% today versus a 0.1% loss in the S&P 500. Alphabet (GOOG 99.21, -2.00, -2.0%) was among the weakest performers for the mega caps after the U.S. filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google over alleged dominance in digital advertising, according to Bloomberg. Roughly half of the S&P 500 sectors logged a gain today, but moves were modest in scope in either direction. Industrials (+0.7%) led the outperformers after Lockheed Martin (LMT 449.23, +7.95, +1.8%) and Raytheon Technologies (RTX 99.47, +3.22, +3.4%), which hit a new 52-week high today, reported pleasing quarterly results. To be fair, losses in 3M and Union Pacific weighed on sector gains. The heavily-weighted communication services (-0.7%) and health care (-0.7%) sectors fell to the bottom of the pack, weighing on index level performance. The energy sector (-0.3%) was also among the worst performers amid falling oil prices ($80.23/bbl, -$1.34, -1.6%).Separately, Treasury yields pulled back today. The 2-yr note yield fell four basis points to 4.19% and the 10-yr note yield fell six basis points to 3.47%.Nasdaq Composite: +8.3% YTDRussell 2000: +7.1% YTDS&P Midcap 400: +6.2% YTDS&P 500: +4.6% YTDDow Jones Industrial Average: +1.8% YTDReviewing today's economic data:January IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI - Prelim 46.8; Prior 46.2January IHS Markit Services PMI - Prelim 46.6; Prior 44.7Ahead of tomorrow's open, Elevance Health (ELV), AT&T (T), Boeing (BA), Progressive (PGR), Abbott Labs (ABT), and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) are some of the more influential earnings reporters. Looking ahead to Wednesday, market participants will receive the following economic data:7:00 ET: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior 27.9%)10:30 ET: Weekly crude oil inventories (prior 8.41 mln)