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- The Financial space is the weak link in the stock market today, one of the worst-performing S&P (SP500) -0.3% sectors and having an outsize impact on the Dow (DJI) -0.6%.
- Visa is struggling on reports Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards in the U.K. at the start of next year, although analysts are defending Visa.
- The Nasdaq (COMP.IND) -0.3% is now down, despite some strength in megacaps. Visa and also PayPal are dragging on Info Tech.
- Consumer Discretionary is doing the best out of the four S&P sectors in the green. Energy and Financials are at the bottom.
- Rates are down, with the 10-year Treasury yield off 4 basis points to 1.59%.
- Housing starts for October fell unexpectedly, but not by much from a revised lower September. Building permits rose more than economists predicted.
- "Total starts fell because a rebound in multi-family activity - reversing the September dip - was not quite enough to offset a decline in the single-family sector, to a 14-month low," Pantheon Macro writes. "But the permits data are more useful because they lead, and are less volatile than starts. In October, most of the increase in permits was in the wild multi family sector, up 6.6%, but single family permits rose too, up 2.7% to a five-month high."
- Oil prices are under pressure, with WTI down more than 2% and below $80 per barrel.
- While the S&P snapped its winning streak last week, BofA clients bought the dip and ended six-straight weeks of selling, with Energy inflows at a record level.