Stocks lower ahead of CPI data, U.S. dollar reaches 20-year high on parity with euro

Yahoo Finance markets reporter Jared Blikre examines the market action heading into today's close, in addition to the U.S. dollar and euro, volatility, sector leaders, and ServiceNow in the software space.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, let's get you a market check as we are an hour away from the closing bell. As we said, it's been a volatile trading day. Major indices still in negative territory. You see the Dow there down just almost flat, essentially, about 50 points. The S&P 500 down about half a percent. And the tech-heavy NASDAQ there down about 2/3 of a percent there. We're seeing that in terms of sectors, it's energy leading the way down. Now our very own Jared Blikre is joining us to take a closer look at the markets. Jared, what's catching your eye today?

JARED BLIKRE: That's right. Well, I'm looking at the markets here. We were green an hour ago. We were red two hours ago. Kind of a choppy day. And you can see that expressed here in the NASDAQ composite. That's the intraday price action. The Russell 2000, by the way, was in the green most of the day, but has slipped into the red. It has been the leader for most of the day as well.

I want to take a look at our two-month chart of the S&P 500, just to show that over the last two to three weeks, we have done just about nothing. Still just kind of trading sideways here. Maybe we need that JPMorgan bounce Thursday morning. Maybe it's going to be CPI. Have to figure out which direction we're going to get in. Just waiting for a catalyst.

Then we got to take a look at the VIX. That has been elevated recently, coming off of those lows, but still within the trend channel here. Does it mean much in the long-term? Hard to say, but we also take a look at the VIX that's the volatility of the VIX. And that is slightly elevated as well. Well, we know the bond market has been leading equities lately. And we can see just a little bit of a downdraft in the five-year T-note yield today. That is down 4/10 of a percent.

Also taking a look at the 10-year, that's down about the same amount, but the US dollar has been on fire. Check this out. This is a 20-year high in the DX-Y. And you take a look at what's happening with the euro. I want to show you guys something. We've been talking about parity. That would be when the euro equals $1 or one tether, I guess. We hit a low of 1.0004, or 1 point triple 0 4, today, but did not breach that level. Probably going to see some downside wash out, if and when that is eventually reached.

Let's take a look at some of the sector action because, as I said, it was a choppy day. But in terms of leadership, we are seeing communication services, staples, materials, industrials, and financials all outperform. That's kind of an odd leadership. Just want to close by taking a look at the software sector. ServiceNow, Bill McDermott, the CEO, was on earlier today, had some negative comments about the space. And I'll tell you what, software, which has been leading over the last month, now lagging today.

DAVE BRIGGS: I like your notion about the S&P, kind of done nothing in the last two or three weeks. That's like all of us, didn't it? I mean--

JARED BLIKRE: Well, I mean, Seana was on vacation--

DAVE BRIGGS: Well.

JARED BLIKRE: --but she's back. Now she's back--

DAVE BRIGGS: She's been--

JARED BLIKRE: --and the markets can move.

DAVE BRIGGS: She's been more like the NASDAQ, yeah. We've been more like the S&P. Did you make a purchase on Prime Day?

JARED BLIKRE: No. I'm holding--

DAVE BRIGGS: No?

JARED BLIKRE: --out for tomorrow. You know what? I woke up this morning. I didn't think about Prime Day at all. Can you believe that? That's heresy in the news business, I recognize this. But no [INAUDIBLE].

SEANA SMITH: There we go.

DAVE BRIGGS: That's outrageous. We are taking attendance. So we are 0 for 1. I did. Did you?

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, of course.

DAVE BRIGGS: OK, well, 2 for 3.