Month: October 2019

The S&P 500 Index gained 0.56 percent on the day, reaching a new all-time high. The Nasdaq gained 1.01 percent.

Technology and healthcare powered the market’s advance. SPDR Technology (XLK) rose 1.27 percent and SPDR Healthcare (XLV) 1.03 percent. iShares PHLX Semiconductor (SOXX) gained 1.82 percent on the day. iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) and iShares U.S. Medical Devices (IHI) rose 1.34 percent and 1.10 percent, respectively.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets this week. Speculators currently place the odds of an interest rate cut at 95 percent. If the Fed follows through as expected, the Fed funds rate will drop to a range between 1.50 percent and 1.75 percent.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis will report its first estimate of third quarter GDP on Wednesday. The economist consensus says 1.4 percent, while the Atlanta Fed’s model says 1.7 percent.

Friday brings the employment report for October. The consensus calls for 70,000 new jobs and sees the unemployment rate climbing to 3.6 percent. Wage growth is expected to be steady at 0.3 percent.

Motor vehicle sales for October and construction spending in September will be released Friday. Manufacturing PMIs are out as well. Economists predict an uptick in manufacturing activity.

The European Union gave Britain a three-month extension on Brexit. The British pound and the euro rallied against the U.S. dollar.

Monday saw reports from AT&T (T), Alphabet (GOOGL), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Spotify (SPOT), Welltower (WELL) and Check Point Software (CHKP).

Tuesday brings Mastercard (MA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Edison International (EIX), Shopify (SHOP), Merck (MRK), Pfizer (PFE), Chubb (CB), General Motors (GM), Mondelez (MDLZ), Amgen (AMGN), Cummins (CMI), Corning (GLW), Electronic Arts (EA) and Allstate (ALL).

On Wednesday, investors hear from Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB), Starbucks (SBUX), General Electric (GE), Automated Data Processing (ADP), Apache (APA), Twlio (TWLO), CME Group (CME) and Etsy (ETSY).

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), American Tower (AMT), Marathon Petroleum (MRO), Altria Group (MO), Exelon (EXC), Estee Lauder (EL), Wayfair (W), Celgene (CELG), United States Steel (X) and DuPont (DD) report on Thursday.

The week closes with earnings from Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Abbvie (ABBV), Sempra Energy (SRE), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Dominion Energy (D), Seagate (STX) and Novo Nordisk (NVO).

The S&P 500 Index challenged its all-time high on Friday. The index gained 1.19 percent for the week. The Nasdaq climbed 1.87 percent, the Russell 2000 advanced 1.55 percent and the Dow 0.66 percent.

Strong earnings boosted the technology sector. Intel (INTC) and Microsoft (MSFT) were among the large-cap tech companies that smashed earnings forecasts.  Intel rallied 9.96 percent for the week and Microsoft 2.47 percent. SPDR Technology (XLK) also climbed 2.47 percent.

SPDR Industrials (XLI) rose 2.17 percent this week and SPDR Financials (XLF) 1.96 percent. Caterpillar (CAT) reported slowing earnings growth, but its report was better than expected. Shares increased 6.93 percent. Financials extended their winning streak thanks to solid earnings from regional and smaller banks. SPDR S&P Regional Banking (KRE) rose 2.18 percent.

SPDR Energy (XLE) also gained on the week, increasing 4.37 percent. Halliburton (HAL) advanced 10.83 percent on strong earnings. Schlumberger (SLB) reported good earnings last week and added another 8.60 percent this week.

Existing home sales were strong and new home sales were on target at 701,000. The flash Markit PMIs for the manufacturing and service sectors showed the economy picking up in October. Consumer sentiment was solid in early October according to the University of Michigan survey. Weekly claims for unemployment held at multi-decade lows.

Bond yields fell this week and along with strong economic data, this boosted high-yield and floating-rate funds. Invesco Senior Loan (BKLN) rallied 0.49 percent and iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond (HYG) rose 0.34 percent. iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) slipped 0.78 percent.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) advanced 1.79 percent this week. iShares MSCI EAFE saw a smaller increase of 1.12 percent. The U.S. Dollar Index climbed 0.64 percent. A near 1 percent drop in the British pound boosted the Dollar Index.

Among the companies beating earnings this week were Biogen (BIIB), Citrix Systems (CTXS), Verizon (VZ), Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Phillips 66 (PSX). Biogen advanced thanks to progress on an Alzheimer’s drug. Shares advanced 30.91 percent. iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) returned 3.13 percent. SPDR S&P Biotech (XBI) rose 3.43 percent.

Raytheon (RTN) climbed 6.21 percent this week on its earnings report. That helped lift shares of U.S. Aerospace & Defense (ITA) 1.06 percent.

The major indexes were broadly higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 Index rallying 0.69 percent.

Energy, financials and technology were the best performing sectors. SPDR Energy (XLE) increased 1.81 percent thanks to solid results from Halliburton. SPDR Financials (XLF) advanced 1.42 percent and SPDR Technology (XLK) 1.05 percent. SPDR S&P Regional Banking (KRE) gained 1.33 percent.

This is a light week for economic data. Existing home sales are out on Tuesday and new home sales on Thursday. Housing has been one of the strongest areas of the market and iShares U.S. Home Construction (ITB) one of the best performing sector ETFs over the past month. The other major data points this week are the flash manufacturing and service PMIs for October.

Earnings season is in high gear. Halliburton (HAL) rallied nearly 9 percent in Monday trading after beating earnings. TD Ameritrade (AMTD), Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), Celanese (CE), Hexcel Corp (HXL) and PetMed Express (PETS) also reported.

Tuesday brings Proctor & Gamble (PG), McDonald’s (MCD), Biogen (BIIB), Chipotle (CMG), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Texas Instruments (TXN), Snap Inc. (SNAP), NextEra Energy (NEE) and United Parcel Service (UPS).

On Wednesday, Boeing (BA), Microsoft (MSFT), Tesla (TSLA), ServiceNow (NOW), PayPal (PYPL), Caterpillar (CAT), Boston Scientific (BSX), Ford Motor (F), Anthem (ANTM), Lam Research (LRCX), Ebay (EBAY) and Eli Lilly (LLY) are among the firms reporting.

Amazon (AMZN), Visa (V) and Intel (INTC) headline Thursday repots. Investors will also hear from Northrop Grumman (NOC), Comcast (CMCSA), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Twitter (TWTR), 3M (MMM), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Raytheon (RTN), Capital One (COF), Illumina (ILMN), Verisign (VRSN) and American Electric Power (AEP).

Verizon (VZ), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Phillips 66 (PSX) and Weyerhaeuser (WY) are some of the larger companies delivering results on Friday.

The U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.10 percent on Monday as Britain’s exit from the European Union was yet again in flux. Parliament rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s negotiated deal with the EU. They voted instead for a 3-month extension request. On Monday, the PM tried again to pass his bill, but the Speaker rejected it based on a rule that disallows a vote on an identical bill. Investors took the news in stride though. iShares MSCI United Kingdom (EWU) gained 0.44 percent and the British pound saw a small increase versus the U.S. dollar. The euro slipped 0.11 percent.