Morgans AM

US markets advanced late in the session as investors continued to shrug off the civil unrest and instead focus on the re-opening of the economy - Dow gained +268-points or +1.05% The broader S&P500 advanced +0.82%, with Energy (up +2.65%) and Materials (+1.76%) leading all eleven primary sectors higher. The latest gains saw the S&P 500 settle more than >40% above its late-March intraday low. Union Pacific Corp rose +1.1% after the railroad operator provided an optimistic volume outlook at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jennifer Hamann was quoted as saying that the company was "feeling just a tad more optimistic" on volumes, and "it does feel like things have maybe bottomed a little bit". NASDAQ rose +0.59%. Big technology stocks lagged the broader market for most of the day, but eked out slight gains in the final minutes of trading. Facebook Inc (up +0.35%), Netflix Inc (+0.33%) and Apple Inc (+0.46%) all closed at least 0.3% higher while Google parent Alphabet Inc gained +0.52%. Amazon.com Inc inched +0.06% higher.

US markets modestly higher, closing well off their session highs as traders adopted a cautious stance ahead of President Trump's two-day summit with China's President Xi Jinping and with the US administration alluding to possible some form of action against Syria following the heinous chemical weapons attack in the country earlier this week - Dow up +15-points or 0.07%, S&P500 +0.19% (with Energy leading seven sectors higher), NASDAQ +0.25%.

US equity markets recovered from losses earlier in the session to settle mostly higher and cap a strong weekly and monthly performance - Dow slipped -18-points or -0.07%, recovering from a slide earlier in the session of as much as -368-points. Pfizer Inc fell -7% in after-hours trading after the company reported that a study of a potential breast-cancer treatment was halted because it was unlikely to achieve its intended change in survival rates. The broader S&P500 added +0.48% . NASDAQ +1.29%, with chipmakers leading the gains (Nvidia Corp up +4.6%). Moderna Inc jumped +10.% after announcing late in the session that the latest study of its potential COVID-19 vaccine has begun. The first participants in each age range have been dosed with its vaccine candidate, known as mRNA-1273, and will receive another dose 28 days later before being followed for 12 months to determine efficacy.

A late sell-off left the benchmark US indices nursing modest losses - Dow down -148-points or -0.58% The broader S&P500 slipped -0.21%, with strong gains for the Utilities sector (up +3.04%) largely offsetting a -2.91% decline for the Energy sector. Financials (down -1.56%) were also a notable underperformer overnight after their solid recent rally. General Electric Co fell -7% after warning that it expects to burn more cash than expected in the second quarter (in part due to the struggles confronting its aviation business) and that 2020 free cash flow will be negative. The NASDAQ -0.46%. Facebook Inc fell -1.6% and Twitter Inc -4.5% after President Trump said he would sign an executive order related to social media companies to "defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history".

US markets recovered from earlier session declines to close solidly higher - Dow up +553-points or +2.21% (to 25,548.27), closing above >25,000 for the first time since March. Goldman Sachs Group Inc gained +6.97% after the investment bank’s President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) John Waldren said the company remains on track to achieve its medium and long term growth targets despite the economic shocks of the coronavirus pandemic. J.P.Morgan Chase & Co rose +5.8%. After the closing bell the head of the company’s corporate and investment banking division said second quarter revenues are on track to be more than >50% higher than the same period last year. AT&T Inc gained +3.9% after the launch of the HBO Max streaming service. Boeing Co gained +4.7% in the extended session (after gaining +3.3% in regular trading) after the jet maker announced plans to layoff 6,770 U.S. workers, with the first employees affected being notified this week. Boeing said it is seeing "green shoots" after the devastation wrought by the virtual halt on air travel, but the industry will take "some years to return to what it was just two months ago." In a separate press release, the company announced it was resuming production of its 737 Max aircraft in Renton, Washington. The broader S&P500 gained +1.48% (to 3,036.13) to settle above >3,000 for the first time since March and back above its 200-day moving average. Financials (up +4.34%) and Industrials (+3.34%) led all eleven primary sectors higher. The Financials sector is up ~10% over the past two days, its biggest two day increase since 8-9 April. General Electric Co climbed +7.2% after the industrial conglomerate announced a deal to sell its nearly 130-year old GE Lighting business to privately held home control and automation company Savant Systems Inc. The Wall Street Journal reported that the deal was valued at ~US$250M. MGM Resorts International rose +2.61% after the company said it plans to reopen its Las Vegas properties on June 4, including the Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas, New York-New York and The Signature casino resorts. FedEx Corp (up +4.5%) is close to taking a stake in German parcel delivery firm Hermes, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper NASDAQ +0.77%, with the technology-centric index staging its biggest intraday percentage comeback since 28 February, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Micron Technology Inc gained +7.97% after the chipmaker lifted its revenue forecast for the third quarter (to a range of US$5.2B to US$5.4B from US$4.6B to US$5.2B)

US stocks surged on Tuesday, adding to their strong gains from last week, as optimism grew about the reopening of the economy and a potential coronavirus vaccine. The Dow added 530 points to gain +2.2%, the S&P 500 rallied +1.2% trading above 3,000 points for most of the session but fell back below that level in the final minutes. The NASDAQ lagged rising just +0.2%.

US bond and equity markets were CLOSED for the Memorial Day holiday. In US corporate earnings, Autozone Inc reports third quarter earnings tonight AEST. In US economic data, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) for April, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for March, New Home Sales for April are released tonight AEST.

US equity markets settled with modest gains ahead of the long weekend despite mounting Sino-US tensions - Dow slipped -9-points or -0.04%, with Caterpillar Inc (down -1.39%) and Chevron Corp (-1.91) the key drags on the index. The broader S&P500 edged +0.24% higher, with Real Estate (up +2.21%) leading six of the eleven primary sectors higher. Energy (down -0.67%) was the worst performing sector. NASDAQ +0.43%. The smaller capitalisation Russell 2000 index gained +0.6%. Hertz Global Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Friday (22 May) For the week, the Dow rose +3.29% to log its best such rise since the week ended 9 April. The S&P500 and Nasdaq logged a weekly rise +3.2% and +3.44% respectively. The Russell 2000 outperformed with a +7% weekly jump. US equity and bond markets are CLOSED tonight AEST for the Memorial Day holiday.

In US markets, the Dow was down 102 points or -0.41%, the broader S&P500 fell -0.78% while the NASDAQ lost -0.92%.
Stocks dropped on Thursday as Wall Street digested a strong rally this week along with the latest weekly jobless claims data and rising tensions between China and the U.S. Amazon shares slid 2.1% after hitting a record high earlier in the session. Netflix closed 2.6% lower while Alphabet and Apple dipped 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively.
The Labor Department reported Thursday another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. Thursday’s report brings the total number of filings during the pandemic to more than 38 million. The number of continuing claims was at 25.07 million, its highest level on record.
Rising tensions between China and the U.S. tempered market sentiment on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that could ban Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Baidu from listing on U.S. exchanges. That measure was passed after President Donald Trump said in a tweet that the “incompetence of China” caused “this mass Worldwide killing,” referring to the coronavirus. Shares of Alibaba dropped 2.1% and JD.com fell by 3.2%.

US equity markets logged their fourth gain in the past five sessions - Dow up +369-points or +1.52%, largely recouping the previous session’s -390-point drop and briefly traded above its 100-day moving average (that has acted as a resistance level). The broader S&P500 gained +1.67% to 2,971.61, its highest close since 6 March. Energy (up +3.82%) led all eleven primary sectors higher, with Communication Services (+2.70%), Financials (+2.22%) and Information Technology (+2.12%) all gaining over >2%. The NASDAQ rallied +2.08% and sits just 4.5% away from its all-time record high struck on 19 February. Amazon.com Inc (up 1.98%) hit a record all time high (US$2,500.01). Facebook Inc rose +6.04% to settle at a record high ($229.97) a day after unveiling a new e-commerce platform called Facebook Shops. For perspective, the market capitalisation of the FANGMAN group (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix Inc, Google-parent Alphabet, Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc and NVIDIA Corp) hit an all-time high of US$6.1 trillion, equal to the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany and Italy. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 index outperformed with a +3.00% gain.