Wall Street rose on Friday with help from positive comments from Washington and Beijing about progress on efforts to reach a US-China trade deal, and from upbeat domestic economic data.
US President Donald Trump told Fox News that a trade deal was “potentially very close” following remarks by President Xi Jinping (習近平) that Beijing wanted to work out an initial agreement.
“It’s tied back to the on-again, off-again narrative that’s been the consistent theme regarding a potential trade deal with China. Our President says we’re on today so the market’s responding accordingly,” said Mike Loewengart, vice president for investment strategy at E*Trade Financial Corp in New York.
However, investors were also showing skepticism as the situation in Hong Kong added complexity, he said.
Meanwhile, the latest economic data underscored a resilient domestic economy as US manufacturing output accelerated this month to its fastest pace in seven months and services activity picked up more than expected.
However, benchmark S&P 500 index snapped its six-week winning streak, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ saw its first weekly drop in eight weeks. A largely better-than-expected third-quarter corporate earnings season had also contributed to the recent rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 109.33 points, or 0.39 percent, to 27,875.62. The S&P 500 gained 6.75 points, or 0.22 percent, to 3,110.29 and the NASDAQ Composite added 13.67 points, or 0.16 percent, to 8,519.88.
For the week the Dow lost 0.46 percent, the S&P fell 0.33 percent and the NASDAQ shed 0.25 percent.
Nordstrom Inc jumped 10.64 percent after the retailer raised its forecast for this year and reported third-quarter profit above expectations.
Gap Inc shares were up 4.44 percent after it beat lowered quarterly profit estimates days after the retailer cut its annual forecast and replaced its longtime chief executive officer Art Peck.
Shares of Tesla Inc fell 6.14 percent as Wall Street questioned the look of its newly unveiled electric pickup truck, whose “armored glass” windows shattered in a demonstration.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.69-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 49 new highs and 73 new lows.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained