Sun, Sep 23, 2018 page14

• Dow hits new high ahead of reshuffle

  ‘A LOT GOING ON’: The sector change is to see telecoms folded into a new sector called communications services, which would include Facebook and Walt Disney

  • Reuters, NEW YORK
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  Industrials led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new closing high on Friday ahead of tomorrow’s major sector reshuffle, capping a week that largely shrugged off trade worries.

  Trading volume spiked to the highest level since Feb. 9 in anticipation of the S&P 500 sector change, when telecoms are to be folded into a new sector called communications services, along with heavy-hitting stocks such as Facebook Inc and Walt Disney Co.

  While the Dow closed higher, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite ended the session in negative territory.

  

  The S&P and the Dow posted weekly gains, with the Dow showing its biggest weekly percentage advance in more than two months.

  The NASDAQ Composite lost ground on the week.

  “Quadruple witching,” when stock options and futures expire, and the rebalancing of the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 indices also contributed to heavier traffic.

  “A lot of those changes have been anticipated by the index funds and they’ve prepared for it,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel LLC in New York. “But there’s a lot going on.”

  Boeing Co, the US’ biggest exporter to China, boosted trade-sensitive industrials higher. The sector led the Dow’s advance.

  Yields on long-dated US Treasuries edged down on Brexit anxieties even with US Federal Reserve expected to hike key interest rates next week.

  Financial stocks headed lower, ending their recent rally.

  “Any time there is a rate hike you potentially see a flattening of the yield curve, which is not good for financials,” Ghriskey said.

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 86.52 points, or 0.32 percent, to 26,743.5, the S&P 500 lost 1.08 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,929.67 and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 41.28 points, or 0.51 percent, to 7,986.96.

  For the week, the Dow Jones added 2.3 percent and the S&P gained 0.8 percent, while the NASDAQ lost 0.3 percent.

  Telecoms rose 1 percent on its last trading day as a discrete major S&P sector, and was the index’s biggest percentage gainer.

  All of the FAANG momentum stocks ended the session lower, with Facebook, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc down between 1.1 percent and 1.9 percent.

  Shares of security and alarm company ADT Inc jumped for a second day in a row, closing up 5 percent as Amazon introduced its new Alexa Guard service, which could notify ADT of disturbances in the home.

  McDonald’s Corp rose 2.8 percent after announcing it would hike its quarterly dividend by 15 percent.

  Under Armour Inc gained 2.9 percent following an upgrade by JPMorgan Chase.

  A 2.9 percent drop in shares of Micron Technology Inc helped pull chipmakers lower after the company said US tariffs on Chinese goods would weigh on its financial results for as much as a year.

  Shares of Pier 1 Imports Inc plunged 19.9 percent after the home furnishings retailer cut its second-quarter forecasts.

  Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.04-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

  The S&P 500 posted 56 new 52-week highs and one new low; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 64 new highs and 46 new lows.

  Volume on US exchanges was 10.77 billion shares, nearly 64 percent higher than the 6.57 billion average over the past 20 trading days.
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