After a roller coaster ride, the Dow and the S&P 500 closed in the green on Friday. However, China’s move to ban cryptocurrencies weighed on the technology sector pushing the Nasdaq to close in the red.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 33.18 points, or 0.1%, to close at 34,798. Dow’s blue-chip NIKE, Inc.’s
NKE
shares tumbled 6.3% on Friday after the company reported that sales lagged estimates in the first-quarter fiscal 2022 results and said that supply chain issues originating from the pandemic, hit the footwear giant. The decline in Nike’s shares weighed on the Dow, but the benchmark managed to end in the positive territory lifted by a 2.8% rise in salesforce.com, inc.
CRM
and 1.4% rise in Visa Inc.
V
and American Express Company
AXP
. All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The S&P 500 rose 6.5 points, or almost 0.2%, to 4,455.48 on Friday. Seven of the 11 major sectors of the broader index closed in the green, with the energy sector leading with a 0.8% gain, followed by 0.7% and 0.6% gain in shares of communication services and financials sectors. The S&P 500’s gains were capped by a 1.2% decline in the real estate sector.
However, the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 15,047.70, after declining 4.54 points, or less than 0.1%. China’s move to ban cryptocurrencies weighed on the technology sector heavily, but gains in tech bigwigs like Facebook, Inc.
FB
and Tesla, Inc.
TSLA
helped restrict losses. Moderna, Inc.
MRNA
was the Nasdaq’s highest decliner, sliding 5.4%, followed by a 3.8% decline in Pinduoduo Inc.
PDD
.
On Friday, the fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) decreased 4.7%, to close at 17.75. The S&P 500 posted 21 new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 82 new highs and 73 new lows. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.50-to-1 ratio, while a 1.40-to-1 ratio favored decliners on Nasdaq. A total of 9.00 billion shares were traded last Friday, lower than the last 20-session average of 10.11 billion.
China Moves to Ban Crypto
On Friday, the People’s Bank of China states that virtual currency doesn’t have the same legal status as legal currency and called out on Bitcoin, Ether and Tether. This intensifies China’s ongoing clampdown on mining bitcoin and weighed on the digital assets’ world. For the day, Bitcoin dropped 5% and ether lost nearly 7% and also weighed on tech stocks. Shares of Coinbase Global, Inc.
COIN
, a crypto-exchange platform declined 2.4%, while Robinhood Markets, Inc.
HOOD
, which made more than half of its transaction-related revenue from crypto, last quarter slid 2.2%.
Earlier in the week, concerns regarding China’s Evergrande hit global markets, pushing the Dow to shed more than 600 points at the beginning of the week. Investors are waiting to see if the developer which is facing a property crisis in the country, will pay $83 million in interest on a US dollar-denominated bond that was due Thursday (Sep 23). However, the company will not technically default unless it fails to make that payment within 30 days. On Friday, Evergrande’s electric car unit also warned that it faces an uncertain future unless it got a swift injection of cash.
New Home Sales Rise in August
On Friday, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly reported that new single family home sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 740,000 in August, higher than the consensus estimate of 710,000, and above July’s upwardly revised of 729,000. Even after a 1.5% rise in the last month, new home sales remain 24.3% lower than the same period last year. Additionally, the median sales price of new houses sold was $390,900 in August, rising slightly from July’s price to reach a new record high.
Weekly RoundUp
For the week ending Sept 24, benchmarks closed slightly higher, ending a turbulent week. Investors’ sentiments got clouded by concern due to China, COVID-19 vaccine and political uncertainties, ending the rally following the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, earlier in the week. The Dow and the S&P 500 rose 06% and 0.5% respectively, while the Nasdaq edged up less than 0.1%. Major indexes erased last week’s losses with rally in energy and finance stocks.
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