DJ30 PointChange: -34.44 Level: 12820.6 NASDAQ PointChange: +0.18 Level: 2933.82 NQ100 PercentChange: +0.00 R2K PercentChange: -0.2 SP400 PercentChange: +0.1 SP500 PointChange: -4.60 Level: 1353.39 NASDAQ-Adv:1007 Dec: 1462 NYSE-Adv:1198 Dec: 1803

[BRIEFING.COM] Failure to sustain a rebound left the stock market to suffer another loss, resulting in a weekly decline of a little more than 1%.

Worries about the health and the transparency of operations at diversified banks and financial services institutions were revived when JPMorgan Chase (JPM 36.96, -3.78), considered among the best in the business, announced that it has tagged $2 billion in trading losses. It mattered little to market participants that such a loss was partially offset by $1.0 billion in securities gains. The stock suffered its worst percentage drop late last summer, while the rest of the Financial sector surrendered 1.2%.

Adding to the negative tone were concerns about China’s economy rate after the country’s latest reading on retail sales and industrial production pointed to slower growth.

Participants responded to the stories by sending stocks lower at the open, but the major equity averages began to fight through the selling almost immediately. The effort was led by Tech, which climbed out of the red to a solid gain. It also helped the Nasdaq run ahead of its counterparts. Among Tech issues, semiconductor-related plays were particularly strong.

A surprise improvement in the Consumer Sentiment Survey from the University of Michigan seemed to encourage traders to extend the bounce. The Survey reading of 77.8, marked an improvement from the 76.4 that had been posted in the prior month. It also bested the 76.0 that had been broadly expected.

The only other dose of data today was a surprise 0.2% decline in overall producer prices during April. The 0.2% increase in core producer prices was exactly what had been expected.

Although stocks were able to reverse their way out of the red, momentum was lost when the S&P 500 reached its prior session high. Its failure to extend past that point was followed by a steady decline, which left nearly every sector to settle in negative territory – Telecom scored the only gain of the session by putting together an impressive 1.2% advance with help from integrated telecom issues.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom +1.2%
Unchanged: Utilities
Declining Sectors: Tech -0.1%, Health Care -0.1%, Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Industrials -0.2%, Consumer Staples -0.3%, Materials -0.4%, Energy -0.7%, Financials -1.2%

Source: Briefing