Wall St. closes higher, but posts weekly declines



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Wall St. closes higher, but posts weekly declines

On Friday, all three major indices of Wall St. had winded down the session with lofty gains, however, had botched to wrap up the week in a green territory, snapping a five-week-long winning streak. In the day’s hefty gains on Wall Street were largely catalyzed by a gyration towards growth stocks, which is believed to have prompted the investors to shrug off dismal economic data including a 10-year low US consumer confidence.

Growth stocks such as Microsoft Corp alongside Apple Inc rose between 1.3 per cent and 4.0 per cent ahead of next week’s high-profile earnings’ report from top-tier retailers like of Home Depot, Macy’s Inc., Target Corp alongside Walmart Inc among others, while chip stocks outperformed broader market sentiment with Philadelphia Semiconductor SE index rising over just a notch shy of 1.0 per cent.

Nonetheless, earlier ian the day, a University of Michigan survey report had unleashed that US consumer sentiment had pummeled to a 10-year low earlier in November, while US Labor Department’s closely monitored JOLTS data had unmasked that the volume of voluntary quits in the US had hit a fresh record in Sept.

However, a much-stronger than anticipated third-quarter earnings’ season, seemingly had prompted investors to turn a deaf ear to a barrage of dismal economic data alongside prospects of an earlier-than-anticipated rate-hike.

Wall St. gains, but snaps five-week long winning streak

Citing statistics, in the day’s Wall St. wind-down, trade-sensitive Dow gained 0.50 per cent to 36,100.31 and benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.72 per cent to 4,682.85, while tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.00 per cent to 15,860.96.

On the week, Dow dropped 0.87 per cent and S&P 500 shed 0.40 per cent, while Nasdaq was nudged as much as 0.84 per cent lower. Meanwhile, addressing to a stronger-than-anticipated third-quarter earnings’ season, a chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Terry Sandven said, “The equity market continues to forge higher on the heels of better-than-expected earnings, and that provides a basis for a risk-on bias.

The market might be a little extended and it might be due for a pause, but that's part of the ebb and flow of an upwardly trending market. The next catalyst will be holiday spending and we'll get a better read on that as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and the remainder of the year”.