US equity markets retreated as inflation fears and COVID concerns overshadowed strong June retail sales figures and some solid corporate earnings releases, leaving the benchmark indices nursing their first weekly declines in four weeks - Dow dropped -299-points or -0.86% . Intel Corp fell -1.51% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the semiconductor giant was exploring a deal to acquire chip maker GlobalFoundries for ~US$30B. The broader S&P500 shed -0.75%. The Nasdaq fell -0.80%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 fell -1.24%. Moderna Inc jumped +10.30% following confirmation after the close of last Thursday’s (15 July) session that the biotechnology company would be added to the S&P500 index at the opening of trading on 21 July, replacing Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (down -0.27%).