US close: Dow records eighth consecutive day of gains
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 13 Sep 2019
(Sharecast News) - US stocks turned in a mixed performance on Friday, with the Dow Jones seeing out the session near all-time highs while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lagged behind.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.14% at 27,219.52, while the S&P 500 was down 0.07% at 3,007.39 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.22% weaker at 8,176.71.
The Dow closed 37.07 points stronger on Friday after closing out the previous session with gains following news that Donald Trump had agreed to hold off on additional tariff increases on Chinese goods for two weeks as a "gesture of goodwill".
While only recording small gains throughout the session, the Dow was still flirting with the notion of surpassing its intraday record high of 27,398.68 as it saw out its eighth straight day of gains. The S&P 500 also closed just short of its own record of 3,027.98.
Focus throughout the session was on trade developments between the US and China, with Donald Trump claiming that Beijing would be making purchases of "large amounts" of agricultural products.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier that China's State Council was planning to exclude some agricultural products, such as soybeans and pork, from additional tariffs on US goods.
However, Markets.com's chief market analyst Neil Wilson warned that a trade deal was likely still a long way off.
"Trump says he would consider an interim deal - maybe, maybe not, you just don't know what's truth amid all the fake news," he said.
The renewed optimism surrounding trade between Beijing and Washington also brought about a considerable sell-off in sovereign bonds, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield shooting up more than 30 basis points throughout the week to end Friday at 1.89%.
On the data front, the US consumer continued to splash out at a greater than anticipated pace last month, although outside of automobiles and building materials they softened a tad.
According to the Department of Commerce, retail sales volumes grew at a 0.4% month-on-month pace in August to reach $526.06bn (consensus: 0.2%).
Elsewhere, import and export prices both fell last month, on the back of sharp declines in the cost of fuel and agricultural goods.
According to the Department of Labor, the US import price index dropped at a 0.5% month-on-month pace in August, matching the consensus forecast.
On the export side of the equation, a 2.5% drop in the price of agricultural goods accounted for the lion's share of the 0.6% decline seen in the price of exports overall.
Business inventories rose 0.4% across the US in July, according to the Department of Commerce, while sales rose 0.3% and the ratio of inventories to sales remained flat at 1.40.
Lastly, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose more than expected to 92 from 89.8 in August as consumers began to feel more confident about the US' current and future economic prospects.
In corporate news, trade bellwethers Caterpillar and Boeing flew higher on Friday, while Apple slumped after Goldman Sachs cut its price target on the tech giant.
Bank stocks such as Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan all rose more than 1.5% thanks to the higher Treasury yield rates.
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