Major indices are up at mid-day Monday as U.S. and Chinese officials begin ongoing mid-level talks in an effort to to preemptively reach a deal ahead of the 90-day truce between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding tariffs. The partial government shutdown remains in effect as President Trump stands firm on his request for funding of the boarder wall, threatening to declare a national emergency to resolve the issue if negotiations between lawmakers continue lacking results.
At present, the S&P 500 is up 0.63%, the DJIA is up 0.35%, and the NASDAQ is up 0.82%.
Industries doing well today include Multiline Retail, Leisure Products, and Specialty Retail. Industries showing weakness include Tobacco, Interactive Media & Services, and Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals. The VIX is down 0.02 to 21.36 after the previous close of 21.38. The most heavily traded options this morning are for the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY), with 20,069 Feb 15 265 calls on the board. The total put/call ratio as of 10:00 AM was 0.97 (254,537/262,154). The advancers/decliners ratio for NYSE stocks is 2,390/589 while the advancers/decliners ratio for NASDAQ stocks is 2,218/796.
[InvestorsKeyhole, various news and data sources]
