US Markets Update – 24’Rally pauses but bulls hold the grip

US Markets Update – 2024 Week7 Update/Recap

US Markets Update – Pausing the winning streak, 7th week of 2024 showed cautious trade around record highs for most of the indices. Nasdaq Composite lost 1.345% this week with weakness in key tech stocks. S&P 500 also shed marginal 0.419% on weekly basis after breaching 5000 mark during this week on 13th Feb due to hot inflation data.

While markets uptrend rally paused but bulls were seen holding the grip tightly and especially small caps didn’t showed any sign of weekness. Russell Index for small-cap i.e. RUT (Russell 2000) closed 1.132% higher on weekly basis, reversed the declining trend in 2024 and closed in positive territory for the first time in 2024.

Other important Russell Indices such as RUA (Russell 3000) Global index and RUI (Russell 1000) for large-cap shed some points but strength remained.

US Markets Update – Summary of the 2024 Week 7:

US Markets Update – Among Global indexes, at broader level all the indices showed strength while Nasdaq Composite shed the most.

NASDAQ Composite Index shed by 1.345% i.e. (215.01 points) for the week.

S&P 500 shed by 0.419% (21 Points) after breaching 5000 mark once in Tuesday trading due to higher inflation news.

RUSSELL2000 (RUT) Small Cap index rose by 1.132% (22.75 Points) during the past week.

RUSSELL3000 (RUA) Global index shed by 0.251% (7 Points) ,

RUSSELL1000 (RUI) Large Cap index shed by 0.326% (9 Points) and

Dow Jones Industrial Average also shed 43.7 Points i.e. 0.113% on weekly basis.

US Markets Update – Key heavy-weight stocks that ROSE on weekly basis:

• TESL (TESLA INC.) rose by 6.38 USD (3.296%) to close at 199.95 $ per share
• MRK (MERCK&CO) rose by 2.34 USD (1.865%) to close at 127.79 $ per share
• SNAP (SNAP INC.) rose by 0.06 USD (0.54%) to close at 11.17 $ per share
• AXP (AMEX) rose by 0.09 USD (0.042%) to close at 212.56 $ per share

US Markets Update : Among the heavy-weight stocks that FALL on weekly basis are:

• GOOGL (Google) declined by 8.48 USD (5.691%) to close at 140.52 $ per share
• MSFT (MICROSOFT CORP.) declined by 16.49 USD (3.921%) to close at 404.06 $ per share
• AAPL (Apple Inc.) declined by 6.54 USD (3.463%) to close at 182.31 $ per share

US Markets Update : Among the small-cap stocks that remained active on weekly basis are:

• HOLO(MICROCLOUD Hologram) rose by 211.55% to close at 66.36$ per share
• NNOX(NANOXIMAGING) rose by 121% to close at 12.95$ per share
• AVNW (AVIAT NETWORKS) rose by 2.34% to close at 35.02$ per share
• TRUP(TRUPANION) declined by 25.375% to close at 22.88$ per share
• TDS(TELEPHONE AND DATA SYSTEMS) declined by 24.313% to close at 14.04$ per share
• COHR (COHERENT) declined by 2.63% to close at 59.72 $ per share
• HEAR (TURTLE BEACH) declined by 2.807% to close at 12.12$ per share
• TTMI (TTM TECHNOLOGIES) declined by 0.47% to close at 15.65$ per share

US Markets – Weekly change summary in Major Indices (2024 Week7)

NASDAQ COMP declined by 215 points i.e., 1.345%

S&P500 (SPX) declined by 21 points i.e., 0.42%

DJIA (US30) declined by 43.7 points i.e., 0.113%.

RUSSELL2000 (RUT) Small Cap rose by 22.75 points this week i.e., 1.132%.

RUSSELL3000 (RUA) Global declined by 7 points i.e., 0.251%

RUSSELL1000 (RUI) Large Cap declined by 9 points i.e., 0.326%

US Markets – 2024 YTD change on the key Indices

On YTD basis, major indices rose sharply (upto 6.5%) from 2023 closing levels breaking records of 52-week high or life-time high, however, the small caps did not well participated in overall rising trend on yearly basis while posted strong come-back in the last week trade.

• Nasdaq Composite 764 Pts i.e. 5.091% UP at 15,775 (2023 Closing level 15011.35)
• Dow Jones 938 Pts i.e. 2.49 % UP at 38628 (2023 Closing level 37689.54)
• S&P500 (SPX) 236 Pts i.e. 4.942% UP at 5005.57 (2023 Closing level 4769.83) near its historic high.
• Russell2000 (RUT) 5.67 Pts i.e. 0.28% UP at 2033 (2023 Closing level 2027.07) rep. Small Cap Stocks. This Index came in positive territory for the first time in 2024.
• Russell1000 (RUI) 125 Pts i.e. 4.775% UP at 2,747 (2023 Closing level at 2622.14) rep. Large Cap stocks.
• Russell3000 (RUA) 124 Pts i.e. 4.531% UP at 2872 (2023 Closing level at 2748.21) rep. Global US stocks.

US Markets update – US Bond Yields since 2024 beginning

With high volatility during the week due to inflation figures, all 3 major bond yields – 10 Years, 20 Years and 30 Years closed at near to record high levels in 2024.

Yield Curve Trend in 2024 (Courtesy: ustreasuryyieldcurve.com)

What’s the buzz this week from key economic indicators?

US Markets Update:

Economic Indicators past week showed mixed economic directions for USD.

US CPI MoM for Jan24 reading was higher than estimates i.e. 0.3% Actual Vs 0.2% Forecast.

US Core CPI MoM for Jan24 reading was also higher than estimates i.e. 0.4% Actual Vs. 0.3% Forecast.

US CPI YoY Jan24 reading was also higher than estimates i.e. 3.1% Actual Vs. 2.9% Forecast.

US Core CPI YoY Jan24 reading was also higher than estimates i.e. 3.9% Actual Vs. 3.7% Forecast

All the above MoM and YoY readings left fear on market watchers that Fed probably will not take it something that gives any indication to them for rate-cut considerations. Earlier during monetary policy reviews, the Fed has said that it wants to receive more evidence that the pace of price growth is “sustainably” moving towards its 2% target before starting to bring borrowing costs down from more than two-decade highs. Powell has stressed that Fed will take a “prudent” approach to rate policy with this dilemma in mind.

Core Retail Sales MoM for Jan24 reading published by Census Bureau was -0.6% Actuals Vs. 0.2% forecast.

Retail Sales MoM for Jan24 reading as published by Census Bureau was -0.8% Acutals Vs. 0.2% forecast.

This shrink in retail sales actual figures versus the estimated values shows weakness in USD.

Initial Jobless claims data issued by Department of Labor showed some strength in economy with 212K Actual Vs 219K Forecast.

Department of Labor published on 16 Feb data related to Purchase Price Index:

PPI (Producer Price Index) 0.3% Actual Vs. 0.1% Forecast and

Core PPI for Jan24 – MoM 0.5% Actual Vs. 0.1% Forecast

These higher CPI figures as compared to estimated figures lifted the market mood back to positive from disappointing figures of higher inflation earlier this week.

Key economic indicators to watch in next week

In the next week 8 (19 Feb-23 Feb, 2024), It will be a short market week since Monday will be a holiday for US Markets, the major economic events that traders will be watching out will be –

FOMC meeting minutes to be published on Tuesday.

S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI and S&P Global US Services PMI to be published on 22nd Feb Thursday.

Credit: Investing.com: Economic-Calendar