Original Link | RockwellTrading by Markus Heitkoetter
Driven by earnings, stocks were all over the place last week.
On Monday, the major indices opened higher. But after the strong start, stocks headed south and moved lower for most of the session.
Tuesday’s trading was mixed. The DOW looked great and rallied to new records. But the S&P and NASDAQ were left behind, finishing the day just slightly higher.
Wednesday was one of those days that could have been a LOT worse. All of the major indices were lower. But a rally in the afternoon helped erase half of the day’s losses.
On Thursday, the major indices looked like they were really struggling to find some direction. The S&P ended the day right where it opened, the NASDAQ ended with a loss, and the DOW was slightly higher.
Heading into Friday, the DOW was up slightly for the week. However, with the S&P and NASDAQ trading in negative territory, the major indices were looking at their first weekly loss since early September.
Then tech earnings came in to save the day (and week)!
On Friday, Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT) rocketed higher on better than expected earnings. AMZN finished the day 13.2% higher, GOOG was up 4.8%, and MSFT ended 6.4% higher. All three stocks finished with new record highs.
The big earnings rally helped the NASDAQ finish the day with a new record close and 2.2% gain. This put the NASDAQ in positive territory for the week. But the S&P also benefitted. Up 0.8% on Friday, the S&P finished positive and ended at record levels as well.
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Here’s where the major indices ended the week:
- The S&P finished 0.2% higher. Up 6 points, the S&P ended at 2,581.
- The DOW ended with a 0.5% gain. Adding 106 points, the DOW closed at 23,434.
- The NASDAQ was up 1.1%. With a 72 point gain, the NASDAQ finished at 6,701.
Crude Oil (CL) had a big day on Friday. CL finished the day 2.4% higher and closed above the $53 mark for the first time since April. But CL didn’t just close above $53…it blew right past it! Crude Oil finished the week with a 3.9% gain, closing at $53.92 a barrel.
After reporting worst than expected earnings a week ago, General Electric (GE) dropped for 5 days straight last week. This past week’s 12.8% loss is the worst weekly loss for the stocks since March of 2009. The drop erased about 26 billion dollars of market value for the stock.
Looking at the week ahead, traders will continue to keep an eye on earnings. And on Friday. there’s the closely watched Jobs Report.
It’s also a big week for the Fed. The Fed will hold its 2-day Fed meeting, which wraps up on Wednesday with the FOMC Statement and Fed Funds Rate decision.
But there’s also the question of who the next Fed Chair will be.
On Friday, President Trump tweeted a video about the Fed chair announcement that should come this week. In the video, Trump said “it will be a person who hopefully will do a fantastic job. And I have somebody very specific in mind…you’ll be very impressed.” It’s believed that the President is leaning towards appointing Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell.
Here are this week’s key reports (all times ET):
MONDAY – No major reports.
TUESDAY – Chicago PMI at 9:45am, Consumer Confidence at 10:00am.
WEDNESDAY – ADP Non-Farm Employment Change at 8:15am, ISM Manufacturing PMI at 10:00am, Crude Oil Inventories at 10:30am, FOMC Statement and Federal Funds Rate at 2:00pm.
THURSDAY – Unemployment Claims at 8:30am.
FRIDAY – Jobs Report at 8:30am, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI at 10:00am.
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