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17/09/2018

Weekly Gains Recorded By US Stocks Despite Trade Issue And Dampening Data




Weekly Gains Recorded By US Stocks Despite Trade Issue And Dampening Data
Despite investor concerns over the escalating trade war between the United States and China, all of the three major indicators in the largest economy of the world did well in the week ending Sept. 14 primarily based on some positive data released in that time.
 
The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq increased 0.92 percent, 1.16 percent and 1.36 percent, respectively in that time period – all showing positive results.
 
The last official trading day on Friday saw a very good opening in sticks and indices but fell soon after a news report published by Bloomberg that claimed that the set of tariffs on Chinese products worth $200 billion is being planned to be implemented by US President Donald Trump.
 
This news shook the markets because just a couple of days earlier, there were multiple reports that Trump might decide to postpone the imposition of the new tariffs in view of the call for and likely negotiations on trade with China to reduce the trade tensions. 
 
The week however ended on a bright note for the US stocks as the market made up some of the losses because of rallies in the stocks of Boeing and in the stocks of the chipmaker. There was a 1.22 percent rise in the shares of Boeing which was amongst the largest gainers in the Dow even as Caterpillar, which is a very trade-sensitive stock, made up its losses to end just 0.4 low of the starting price.  
 
According to some strategists, investors would accord less of instants reaction of individual pieces of news as they have re4alised that the negotiations on easing the trade tensions with China would go on for quite some time.
 
There was an increase of 1.8 per cent in the stocks of the tech companies in the week in contrast to a significant sell off the week earlier. But there were lingering concerns among tech investors about the implementation of stricter regulations on social media companies which could result in restrictive practices.  
 
A number economic data and news also hit the Wall Street.
 
There was a 0.1 per cent increase in U.S. retail sales in the month of August compared to the month earlier according to the data from the US Department of Commerce as released on Friday. This number was much lower than the anticipated rate of growth of 0.4 per cent and is the lowest in the last six months.
 
There was however an upbeat sentiment among the U.S. consumer which crossed the 100 mark in September compared to 96.2 clocked in August. That number was more than the forecast as per the latest survey by the University of Michigan.
 
Conversely, a 0.1 per cent decline was noted in the U.S. Producer Price Index for the month of August according to the data released by the Department of Labor on Wednesday. The final demand index rose 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending in August.
 
There was also a rise in the U.S. Small-Business Optimism Index at 108.8 in August which was the highest since the 108 mark hit in July 1983 said the National Federation of Independent Business. There was however little change in the number of U.S. job openings at 6.9 million in July, said data from the Labor Department.
 
(Source:www.xinhuanet.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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