Market Perspective for July 28, 2017

Equities climbed to new all-time highs and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.16 percent on the week. A dip in technology shares on Thursday and Friday left the Nasdaq down 0.20 percent for the week. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 also had small declines.

Comcast (CMCSA), Proctor & Gamble (PG), Intel (INTC), Dow Chemical (DOW), Mastercard (MA), Bristol-Myers (BMY), Facebook (FB), Coca-Cola (KO), Boeing (BA), Paypal (PYPL), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Ford (F), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Amgen (AMGN), Alphabet (GOOGL) and United Parcel Service (UPS) all beat earnings estimates.

Amazon (AMZN) earnings per share were 71 percent below expectations, however, sending shares down 5.8 percent from Thursday’s high to Friday’s close. SPDR Consumer Discretionary (XLY) gained 0.30 percent on the week, despite its heavy AMZN weighting.

Tobacco stocks pulled consumer funds lower on Friday after the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said it would reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels. Shares of Altria (MO) fell as much as 18 percent before rebounding. SPDR Consumer Staples (XLP) was down 2.22 percent at the low, before finishing the day down 0.83 percent.

Durable goods orders rose 6.5 percent in June, faster than expected and far higher than May’s 0.1-percent decline. Weekly unemployment claims remain near four-decade lows at 244,000. New home sales hit an annualized pace of 610,000 in June, up from May’s 605,000, while existing home sales slowed by 0.1 million to 5.52 million in June.

West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to near $50 a barrel. A larger-than-expected decline in crude oil inventory pushed prices higher. SPDR Energy (XLE) increased 2.10 percent on the week.

Second-quarter GDP increased by 2.6 percent, much higher than the first quarter’s 1.2 percent growth.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence survey jumped to 121.1 in July, while the University of Michigan’s dipped slightly. Both numbers, however, beat forecasts.

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