US stocks finished a bumpy week on a high note as technology and small-cap equities shook off the blues from recent weeks and led the overall market higher.
The broad-based S&P 500 closed the week on a dramatic note, breaching the 1,900-point mark for the first time to end on 1,900.53. It gained 22.67 points (1.21 percent) over the week, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 114.96 (0.70 percent) to 16,606.27 and the tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index rose 95.22 (2.33 percent) to 4,185.81.
Analysts were particularly heartened at the week’s gains by the NASDAQ and the small-cap Russell 2000, which rose 2.1 percent, since weakness in both has weighed on sentiment recently.
“The fact of the matter is we are in a bull market,” Ventura Wealth Management portfolio strategist Tom Cahill said.
Yet Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc, said trading volumes were extremely light all week ahead of the holiday weekend that will see US markets close tomorrow for Memorial Day.
James said he expects a “very quiet summer,” with low trading volumes causing more volatility.
In a week light in economic indicators, investors focused on the US Federal Reserve and earnings from the retail sector.
On Tuesday, all three indices slumped in part due to comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser that a strengthening US economic recovery could require the central bank to raise interest rates “sooner rather than later.”
Yet on Wednesday, stocks made up for all the previous day’s losses and then some, after the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s policy meeting last month suggested an earlier-than-expected hike in the federal funds rate was unlikely. The Fed is expected to lift its near-zero rate in the middle of next year.
Home-improvement retailers like Home Depot Inc and Lowe’s Companies Inc impressed with commentary on rising demand for their goods, rising 2.4 percent and 3.7 percent respectively.
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc finished 16.5 percent lower after slashing its full-year profit forecast from US$3.03 to US$3.08 per share to US$2.70 to US$2.85 due to extremely weak sales for golf and hunting equipment and apparel.
Other retailers suffering losses after earnings reports included PetSmart Inc, Staples Inc and Urban Outfitters Inc.
Next week will feature the second first-quarter GDP estimate, the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices, durable goods orders and the Conference Board Inc’s consumer confidence report.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day