The US investors saw a volatile trading session Friday as investors digested earnings news from numerous companies and the latest US inflation data. Even though S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed the session higher, the Dow Jones saw a modest move to the lower end. As US stocks saw volatile session, the S&P 500 went up by 3.59 points or 0.1% to ~4,783.83 levels and Nasdaq increased marginally by 2.57 points to reach ~14,972.76 levels. Dow Jones saw a decline of ~118.04 points or 0.3% to ~37,592.98 levels.
Even though Friday witnessed a volatile session, how did the markets perform over the entire week?
For the week ended Friday, tech-heavy Nasdaq saw a strong increase of 3.1%, S&P 500 up by 1.8% and the Dow Jones increased 0.3%. On Friday, Dow Jones was impacted by the significant decline in UnitedHealth as the health insurance giant saw a fall of 3.4%. This movement was seen despite it reported 4Q results which exceeded analyst estimates on both top line and bottom line. There are several other companies which reported their results. Financial giants such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase closed the session lower post reporting quarterly results. However, Citigroup ended higher higher over the course of entire trading session.
But what was the main factor impacting the US markets on Friday? Was the impact related to earnings or was there some macro-economic news?
On Friday, traders reacted to Labor Department report which showed that producer prices in the US unexpectedly edged lower for the month of December. Economists and experts expected producer prices to rise by ~0.1% in comparison to unchanged reading originally reported for earlier month.
Post the Thursday’s release, which exhibited that consumer prices in the US went up by more than expected in December month, the wholesale price data further added to uncertainties regarding the soft landing and the outlook for rate cuts.
While the US stocks saw volatile session on Friday, what’s ahead for the investors?
Well, we believe that next week’s trading might get impacted by reaction to overall economic news, which includes releases related to retail sales, industrial production, etc. Apart from these releases, earnings are expected to impact investors’ sentiments. Over the course of next week, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, etc. are expected to release their earnings results.
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