US equity markets declined and oil prices hit fresh 2023 highs ahead of the release of the latest monthly inflation figures tonight AEST - Dow dipped -18points or -0.05%, The broader S&P500 eased -0.57%, with Information Technology (down -1.75%) and Communication Services (-1.06%) falling over >1% to lead eight of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy (up +2.31%) was the clear outperformer overnight. Oracle Corp tumbled -13.50% to be the worst performing S&P500 component after the business software giant posted weaker-than-expected second quarter earnings and revenue guidance after the close of the previous session.

US equity markets advanced, with both the S&P500 and Nasdaq booking their biggest daily percentage gains since 29 August ahead of US inflation and retail sales figures later in the week - Dow up +87-points or +0.25%. Walt Disney Company rose +1.15% after CNBC reported that the media and entertainment giant has come to an agreement with cable giant Charter Communications Inc (+3.18%) to restore popular channels such as ESPN to the cable operator’s nearly 15M subscribers following an 11-day long channel blackout.

US equity markets advanced on Friday (8 September) but settled off their session highs as investors eyed inflation data later this week - Dow up +76-points or +0.22%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc settled +1.11% higher on the news that the investment banking giant would cut underperformers as soon as October - a regular practice that it had paused in during the pandemic - according to the Financial Times.

US equity markets logged modest gains, advancing for a fourth consecutive session and further curtailing August’s losses as investors weighed signs of cooling in the labour market and revised data on economic growth in the second quarter - Dow edged +38-points or +0.11% higher, with Apple Inc gaining +1.92% a day after confirming 12 September as the date for its latest product event where the company is expected to debut its latest smartphone line-up.

US equity markets retreated, continuing the sluggish start to September as fresh rises in Treasury yields weighed on risk assets - Dow fell -199-points or -0.57%, with Apple Inc (down -3.58%), Amgen Inc (-1.97%) and Boeing Co (-2.08%).

US equity markets resumed trading following the Labor Day long weekend, with value stocks under particular pressure as investors digested some disappointing manufacturing orders data - Dow fell -196-points or -0.6%, The broader S&P500 -0.42%, with Materials (down -1.81%), Industrials (-1.69%) and Utilities (-1.54%) all declining over >1.5% to lead eight of the eleven primary sectors lower. Energy (up +0.49%) and Information Technology (+0.39%) sat atop the primary sector leaderboard. The Nasdaq dipped -0.08%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -2.10% as rising Treasury yields added pressure.

US equity markets and bonds rallied following data that showed signs of a cooling labour market that could further ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates - Dow up +293-points or +0.85%. The broader S&P500 rallied +1.45% to log its best day since June, with Communication Services (up +2.46%) and Consumer Discretionary (2.35%) rallying over >2% to lead all eleven primary sectors higher. Tesla Inc jumped +7.69% to a near three week high of US$257.18, logging its largest one-day percentage increase since 21 March. Analysts at Oppenheimer reported that the electric vehicle maker launched a US$300M AI Computing cluster, saying the supercomputer “will employ 10,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs and is more powerful than the world’s third highest-performing supercomputer.”

US equity markets advanced to kick off the final trading week of August, picking up from where they left off last Friday (25 August) following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. A number of analysts felt that the central bank chief had set a high bar for further interest rate hikes, whilst eyeing key inflation and employment data at the back end of the week - Dow gained +213-points or +0.62%. 3M Co gained +5.22% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the multinational conglomerate was nearing an agreement on an ~US$5.5B plan to settle more than 300,000 lawsuits over defective military earplugs.