US investors are cautious. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 each repeatedly broke all-time records over the past week, but by Friday, neither had managed to rise as much as 0.4 percent in the five sessions.
Friday ended with the S&P 500 managing a minor surge in the final minutes of trade to eke out a fresh record, up 0.39 percent for the week at 2,039.82.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35 percent for the week, ending at 17,634.74, 18 points below its Thursday record.
Meanwhile, the NASDAQ Composite kept up its march to recover from the 2000 dot-com crash that stunned markets. On Friday the heavily tech-oriented gauge finished at 4,688.54, its best level since March 28, 2000.
After a 1.77 percent gain for the week, it nevertheless remained 360 points shy of the all-time high on March 10, 2000. The widespread caution was clear, with shares at high valuations by a number of measures.
“Neither buyers nor sellers are showing much conviction at this juncture ... It is basically a game of chicken right now to see which way the market turns and, importantly, why it turns [if it turns at all],” analysts at Briefing.com said.
“We came so far so fast, it would only be natural to pull back at least a little bit,” Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management said.
“Between now and the end of the year, the markets probably will move sideways a little bit and then move a little higher,” he added.
US shares remained supported by firm earnings growth over the past week, with Walmart’s forecast-beating third-quarter results on Thursday boosting its shares 4.7 percent and propelling the Dow to a new zenith.
For many that was a good sign — along with a rebound in consumer spending last month reported by the US Department of Commerce on Friday and the plunge in gasoline prices — that year-end holiday spending on travel, gifts and restaurants could be strong.
The factors underpinning the gains remain unchanged: the combination of weak economic growth elsewhere and central banks keeping the global markets flush with cheap cash. Those with surplus have few places to put it; bond yields remain ultralow.
Stocks still have not shown the froth of the markets for art and other collectibles, where the mega-wealthy continue to bid up the price of famous pieces to stunning levels.
Earlier this week, a 1925 Patek Philippe watch sold for a record US$21.3 million in a Geneva auction, and in the same city a sapphire known as the Blue Belle of Asia went for an unprecedented US$17.3 million.
In New York, Christie’s sold two iconic Andy Warhol paintings for more than US$151 million, and its main rival, Sotheby’s, auctioned off two Mark Rothko paintings for a combined US$76.5 million.
However, the gains of the newest tech darlings come close.
Shares of Chinese online marketer Alibaba (阿里巴巴) passed US$115 on Friday, up 60 percent since its market debut in September. The price valued it at US$286 billion, more than US$100 billion higher than US online retail king Amazon.
The pre-Christmas shopping season will only begin in earnest in the second half of this month, and that could set the pace of the markets for the rest of the year.
“The economy is growing reasonably well right now,” Cahill said.
“The price of oil continues to go lower, that is good for the consumer. Some analysts believe this could be one of the strongest retail seasons we had in a few years,” he said.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS