U.S. Equities Little Changed as VIX Drops After Comey Ouster

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks were little changed following President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey.

The S&P 500 lost 0.1% to 2,394 at 10 a.m. in New York, as investors assessed earnings reports. The benchmark closed little changed in the past two sessions after better-than-forecast payrolls helped send it to a record last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 51 points to 20,925 on Wednesday.

• Small-cap shares up 0.4%
• Real Estate and energy shares leading market; oil jumps 1.6%
• Materials and utility shares up at least 0.3%
• 10-year Treasury yield down 2 bps
• Tech stocks in spotlight with Nvidia shares trading at volume 7x the 30-day average and up 13% after earnings
• Volume in S&P 500 slightly above 30-day average at this time; tech shares accounting for 35% of volume in early trading
• VIX at 9.7 is hovering near Monday’s closing level that was the lowest since 1993
• The dollar edged lower, after reaching the highest in a month Tuesday amid hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials
• POLITICS:
  • President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired FBI Director James Comey, the man in charge of investigating his campaign’s possible ties to Russia
• ECONOMY:
  • April import prices rose 0.5% m/m after rising 0.1% in March
  • Borrower fraud in U.S. auto loans is surging, and may approach levels seen in mortgages during last decade’s housing bubble, according to a startup firm that helps lenders sniff out bogus borrowers
• EARNINGS:
  • After-market Wednesday: Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA), Whole Foods Market Inc (WFM), Symantec Corp (SYMC), Hologic Inc (HOLX)
  • Pre-market Thursday: Macy’s Inc (M), Kohl’s Corp (KSS)

For more equity market news:

• Nasdaq’s ‘Big Five’ Approach $3 Trillion in Market Value: Chart
• VIX Sub 10 May Flag 2-3 Months of Low Volatility: Morgan Stanley
• VIX/VStoxx Call Switches Are Attractive Hedging Strategy: JPM

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Renick in New York at orenick2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Nagi at chrisnagi@bloomberg.net, Sebastian Silva