Stocks opened mixed and remained that way throughout the session. The Dow moved higher for the sixth time in seven days and tacked on to yesterday's big advance, putting the blue chip index less than 1% away from its all-time high. The Nasdaq struggled after yesterday's reprieve as investors continue to rotate out of mega-cap tech stocks. Cannabis names continued their volatility, headlined by Tilray (TLRY), which surged to a session high of $300 per share before coming back significantly late in the day. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., housing starts rose 9.2% to a 1.28M rate in August, while building permits declined 5.7% to an annualized rate of 1.23M. The current account gap narrowed to a smaller than expected $101.5B in Q2, following a $121.7B gap in Q1. In Asia, the Bank of Japan maintained the -0.1% policy rate, matching widespread expectations. The 10-year JGB yield target was held at about 0%, also as expected. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Tilray jumped to as high as $300 per share during the session after CEO Brendan Kennedy was a guest last night on Jim Cramer's Mad Money program. In the CNBC interview, the head of the Canadian cannabis company said that his company is not interested in partnering with AB InBev (BUD), but rather indicated he wants it to be the next AB InBev. Tilray shares, following several intraday trading halts, closed with an advance of 38% at $214.06 per share... Shares of Amazon (AMZN) were in focus after CNBC reported that the e-commerce giant is testing a new service called Scout, which uses machine learning to help consumers who don't know specifically what they want to buy but are willing to take some automated recommendations. Shares of several retailers and online personal shopping services, including Wayfair (W), Williams-Sonoma (WSM), Stitch Fix (SFIX), and Steven Madden (SHOO), slipped after the news. In addition, Bloomberg reported that Amazon is planning up to 3,000 cashierless "AmazonGo" stores by 2021... Tesla (TSLA) shares were once again in focus after the New York Times reported that the SEC has sent subpoenas over the last month not only to the car maker, but to Goldman Sachs (GS) and Silver Lake, both of whom Tesla hired to explore going private... Meanwhile, CNBC reported that Alibaba (BABA) founder and chairman Jack Ma said that the company is no longer committed to a promise to create 1M jobs in the U.S. in the wake of an ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Fitbit (FIT), which rose over 5% after the company announced it is expanding its strategic partnership with Humana (HUM) to drive healthy habits and manage chronic disease. Also higher was E-Trade (ETFC), which gained 4% after Jefferies analyst Daniel Fannon upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold. Among the notable losers was Resolute Forest (RFP), which slipped 4% after the stock was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at CIBC. Also lower was Copart (CPRT), which fell 13% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: The Dow rose 158.80, or 0.61%, to 26,405.76, the Nasdaq lost 6.07, or 0.08%, to 7,950.04, and the S&P 500 advanced 3.64, or 0.13%, to 2,907.95.
