Wall Street stocks ended the week higher as trade was boosted by a brighter outlook for next year, and with next week expected to see more gains as traders take positions ahead of the year’s end.
News on Tuesday that US President Barack Obama and his Republican foes struck a deal to extend controversial tax cuts was greeted with relief on Wall Street, even though the plan still faces massive hurdles in Congress.
Economists forecast the cuts would boost the US economy, as Americans will have more money to invest in the market, with many analysts estimating GDP to grow next year by 0.5 to 1 percentage point to around 3 percent.
Sentiment was further boosted on Friday after the US Commerce Department reported the US trade deficit surprisingly narrowed sharply in October to the smallest gap since January, thanks to a surge in exports underpinned by a weaker US dollar.
“These were two data points that merely add to the tailwinds that the market has been experiencing for the last several months,” analyst Michael James of Wedbush Morgan Securities said.
“People are coming to the realization that the economy is likely to be stronger next year, and that is why you’ve seen a continued optimism about equities,” he said.
“It has been very hard for any data point over the last several weeks to sell the market off, whether it be domestic data points or sovereign debt fears from a couple of weeks ago regarding Ireland,” James said.
In the week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25 percent to 11,410.32.
The broader S&P 500 index added 1.28 percent to 1,240.40 points, its highest level in more than two years, while the technology-rich NASDAQ composite index rose 1.78 percent to 2,637.54 points, a fresh three-year high.
Next week was expected to see more gains, though volume was likely to remain relatively low, as investors try to make some extra gains ahead of the end of the year.
“We continue to be in an uptrend at least till the end of the month,” James said. “There are still many fund managers underperforming the benchmark averages and as a result you are only going to see money continuing to go to work, not taken out of the markets.”
In terms of economic data, traders will get retail sales numbers for last month on Tuesday that will include the unofficial Thanksgiving weekend start of the Christmas shopping spree.
The monthly meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will also draw attention as traders will seek insight on the health of the US economy following the central bank’s decision last month to renew massive asset purchases in an effort to prop up the economic recovery.
The committee was expected to maintain interest rates at their current historic lows between zero and 0.25 percent.
“I don’t expect any big surprise from the FOMC. We should focus on the consumer, most notably the retail sales,” Natixis analyst Evariste Lefeuvre said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last