A Boeing downgrade and a General Electric price target cut were partly to blame for the Dow Jones Industrial Average sliding over 100 points to start the trading week on Monday.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded its rating of Boeing from buy to neutral, causing the embattled airline to fall as much as 3.5 percent. The bank cited a delay of the 737 Max jet that has been the cause of controversy the past month will be delayed six to nine months.
Robust Employment Market
Last week, markets were given a boost when Job growth in March made a comeback following a less-than-stellar February as 196,000 jobs were created as opposed to 175,000 expected by economists. The better-than-expected payrolls brings the three-month average to a strong 180,000 jobs created per month. That number is lower than the 223,000 jobs created in 2018, but falls in line with a robust labor market.
“Investors continued to ride a hot hand last week,” said Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray, in a note to clients.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held steady at 3.8 percent, but lower-than-expected wage gain came in at just 0.1 percent after February’s better-than-expected 0.4 percent. Nonetheless, all signs still point to a strong labor market overall.
Of the 196,000 jobs created, over 35 percent came from the education and health services sector. Specifically, strong hiring came from ambulatory care, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities.
“From our perspective, the market will need beat and raise results in order to justify the premium valuation against the current economic and geopolitical backdrop,” Piper Jaffray’s Johnson said.
Related: Analyzing the First Quarter Bounce Back
ETFs to Play
Will a drop this week in U.S. equities allow large cap equities to blunt the impact of a short-term downturn versus small cap equities?
For investors looking for continued upside in large cap equities over small caps, the Direxion Russell Large Over Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: RWLS) offers them the ability to benefit not only from large cap equities potentially performing well, but from their outperformance compared to their small cap brethren.
Conversely, if investors believe that small cap equities will outperform large cap equities, the Direxion Russell Small Over Large Cap ETF (NYSEArca: RWSL) provides a means to not only see small cap stocks perform well, but a way to capitalize on their outperformance versus their large cap brethren.
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