US stock markets overcame a growing wall of worries to post a positive end to the week.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both finished higher Friday, up 0.1% and 0.2%, with the Nasdaq falling only slightly.
Similarly to Australian markets, the returns were powered by the energy and financial sectors as positive comments from the Federal Reserve suggest a strong outlook for the economy. Tech underperformed as higher bond rates are likely to hit their valuations most.
US stocks overcome wall of worry
The ‘wall of worry’ grew during the week with the US debt ceiling, Evergrande’s potential default and the Federal Reserve flagging higher interest rates likely enough to send the market into a tailspin in any other week.
Yet with very few palatable alternatives, ‘buy the dip’ remained the strategy of the day with all three US indices posting positive results for the week, up 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.02%.
Crypto banned in China
The biggest news came from crypto markets with the Chinese Government deeming crypto transactions ‘illicit’ and seemingly banning them in the country. This is a big hit to the mainstream transition given the long-term support in China.
Nike & Costco report
Shares in Nike (NYSE: NKE) fell over 6% after reporting a slightly lower quarterly revenue result of US$1.9 billion. This was a 16% improvement on 2020 but selling costs increased 20% in a hit to margins. Both wages and digital investment were behind the increase.
Meanwhile, Costco (NASDAQ: COST) delivered record quarterly profit topping US$60 billion for the three month period, up from US$53 billion in the prior year. This represented 17% growth for the full year, besting 1992’s record year. Costco shares were over 3% higher.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks finished the week on Friday.
- Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP) up 4.7%
- Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) up 4.0%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) up 2.8%
- Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) down 2.2%
- Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) down 3.9%
- Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) down 5.4%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to open flat on Monday. For all the latest, check out my ASX 200 morning report.
