A tenacious stock market rally finally stumbled on a light-news Tuesday.
The day's core piece of economic data was focused on inflation: The Labor Department said October's producer price index (PPI) was up 0.6% month-over-month, and 8.6% year-over-year – the fastest rate of growth in wholesale prices in more than a decade (though inline with economists' expectations).
"The October report showed continued strength in goods prices, which highlights persisting supply bottleneck issues, despite signs that supply has improved in some sectors," say Barclays economists Pooja Sriram and Blerina Uruçi. "Energy (+4.8%) and core goods (ex food & energy; +0.5%) rose at a strong pace. On the other hand, services PPI increased at a modest 0.2% m/m, similar to September, led by a sharp rebound in transportation and warehousing costs after September's decline. In particular, truck and air transportation costs jumped in October."
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Be a smarter, better informed investor.
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
"The October report signals that pipeline price pressures remain firm, especially for goods, which will likely remain a significant driving force for core goods (consumer price index) and (personal consumption expenditures price index) inflation this year," they add.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered a mild setback, declining 0.3% to 36,319 as components including Visa (V, -3.2%) and International Business Machines (IBM, -1.7%) retreated.
Tesla (TSLA, -12.0%) – whose declines accelerated Tuesday after CEO Elon Musk's weekend poll asking whether he should sell 10% of his hefty stock position – proved a significant drag on the other major indexes. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.6% to 15,886) saw its 11-session win streak come to an end, while the S&P 500 (-0.4% to 4,685) was stopped at eight consecutive gains.
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 also dropped, by 0.6% to 2,427.
- U.S. crude futures improved by another 2.7% to hit $84.25 per barrel.
- Gold futures were higher by 0.2% to settle at $1,830.80.
- The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was up 3.5% to 17.82.
- Bitcoin's charge continued, with the cryptocurrency surpassing its previous high of $66,974.77 and rushing above $68,500 before pulling back to $67,313.50 by the afternoon. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
- PayPal Holdings (PYPL) sank 10.5% following its Monday-evening quarterly report. The company earned an adjusted $1.11 per share that topped expectations for $1.07 per share, but revenues of $6.18 billion were slightly behind the pros' projections for $6.23 billion. More worrisome, however, was fourth-quarter guidance for $6.85 billion to $6.95 billion in revenues and $1.12 per share in adjusted profits, both of which fell under Wall Street's bar. That overshadowed an announcement that its Venmo service could be used as a checkout option on Amazon.com (AMZN) beginning in 2022.
A Bumper Year for ETFs
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry is guaranteed to finish 2021 in record fashion.
An all-time high $500 billion was poured into U.S. ETFs in 2020, but ETF inflows this year eclipsed that mark – in July – and have since gone on to hit $720 billion as of the end of October.
Kiplinger highly values actively managed mutual funds that can go above and beyond basic benchmarks, but there's no questioning the core driver behind ETFs' ever-growing popularity. While a few ETFs are actively managed, most are tied to an index, providing simple and typically inexpensive exposure to just about any corner of the market you can think of – from stocks and bonds to commodities and even cryptocurrencies.
However, even within the seemingly straightforward realm of index ETFs, similar-sounding funds can indeed be quite different from one another. Here, we try to separate the wheat from the chaff, highlighting 14 index funds across several categories that stand out thanks to their low fees, smart strategies and ability to outdo their peers.
Kyle Woodley was long PYPL as of this writing and initiated a position in TSLA during Tuesday's session.
-
Seven Surprising Reasons Retirees Are Going Back to WorkSure, money is a big reason to come out of retirement, but it's not the only reason retirees are doing it.
-
Dow Gains 617 Points as Rate Cuts Near: Stock Market TodayWednesday's economic data didn't shift Wall Street's expectations that the Fed is preparing for a rate cut at next week's meeting.
-
Markets Prepare for August Inflation Data: Stock Market TodayApple CEO Tim Cook is still important, but price action this week is as much about incoming inflation data ahead of next week's Fed meeting.
-
Stocks Slip as Job Growth Stalls: Stock Market TodayThe August jobs report came in much weaker than expected, while the unemployment rate ticked higher.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into Sherwin-Williams Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodaySherwin-Williams stock has clobbered the broader market by a wide margin for a long time.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into UnitedHealth Group Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodayUNH stock was a massive market beater for ages — until it wasn't.
-
Dow Retreats From a Record High: Stock Market TodayQuietly rising since April, Home Depot stock was conspicuously constructive Tuesday as high-profile tech names dragged equity indexes down.
-
What Tariffs Mean for Your Sector ExposureNew, higher and changing tariffs will ripple through the economy and into share prices for many quarters to come.
-
Dow Dives 542 Points on Soft Jobs Data: Stock Market TodayThe last day of a busy week ends with the first greater-than-1% move in either direction in more than a month.
-
Stocks Are Up and Down on Fed Day: Stock Market TodayIn another sign of changing times, JPMorgan has partnered with Coinbase to enable cryptocurrency purchases with credit cards.
