US close: Stocks stage bounce after brutal week of selling
Shares on Wall Street staged a bounce at the end of the week, following two days of especially heavy selling, as banking heavyweights Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup kicked off the earnings season.
By the end of trading, the Dow Jones Industrials was up 1.15% or 287.16 points at 25,339.99, while the S&P 500 was 1.42% or 38.76 points higher to 2,767.13 and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead by 2.29% or 167.83 points at 7,496.89.
The S&P 500 was 4.1% lower over the week as a whole.
The Russell 2000 index of small capitalisation stocks only managed to eke out an advance of 0.08% to 1,546.68 on Friday.
Early in the session, SpreadEx analyst Connor Campbell, said: "The Dow Jones got some of its mojo back on Friday, at the moment intent on ending a wild week in (mild) recovery mode."
Much like European indices, the Dow got off to a positive start on Friday, slightly recovering from two days of sharp losses, sparked in part by worries about rising US interest rates and the trade conflict between the US and China; however, as Campbell pointed out, the extent of that positivity remained to be seen, with the US index veering between gains of 200 and 400 points.
Meanwhile, Commerzbank's chief economist Peter Dixon said one of the biggest single concerns is that the surge in US markets has been overly reliant on the so-called FAANG stocks - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google.
"A market which is so dependent on one sector is clearly vulnerable to a shift in sentiment which could result from factors as diverse as legal issues (e.g. privacy laws) or a failed product offering," he said. "A final point to bear in mind is that US equities have been turbocharged by the tax cuts introduced at the start of the year, which has given a boost to earnings but which is unlikely to be sustainable."
Be that as it may, on Friday at least the S&P 500 managed to stage a bounce after hitting its 50-week moving average during the prior session.
From a sector standpoint, the best performance was seen in the following industry groups: Toys (4.08%), Leisure goods (3.58%) and Speciality retailers (3.49%).
In parallel, the VIX volatility index was off by 14.69% at 21.31 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up by one basis point to 3.16%.
Things were starting to get busy on the corporate front, with shares of JPMorgan dipping 1.09% at the open despite its third-quarter results beating analysts' estimates, with revenue of $27.8bn compared to expectations of $27.5bn and earnings per share of $2.34 versus expectations of $2.25.
Wells Fargo on the other hand rose 1.30% after posting a 32% jump in third-quarter profit on Friday, helped in part by lower expenses and financial giant Citigroup picked up 2.14% after it revealed a mixed performance from the latest three-month stretch.
GE shares retreated 3.14% after the group delayed its earnings report by five days - the fourth-straight day of losses for the multinational.
On the macro front, the cost of goods purchased from outside the US advanced a tad slower than expected last month.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US import prices rose 0.5% month-on-month in September, edging past expectations of a 0.3% increase.
However, year-on-year, they were up by 3.5%, short of the 3.7% analysts had anticipated.
Fuel import costs climbed by 3.8% versus the prior month, while non-fuel import prices were flat.
Export prices, on the other hand, were flat month-on-month.
Elsewhere, consumer sentiment in the US deteriorated a tad in October, according to a preliminary reading from the University of Michigan.
The consumer sentiment index ticked down to 99.0 from 100.1 in September and 100.7 in October last year, missing expectations for a reading of 100.4.
Meanwhile, the current economic conditions index fell to 114.4 this month from 115.2 in September and 116.5 last October.
The index of consumer expectations declined to 89.1 in October from readings of 90.5 last month and in October 2017.
Survey of Consumers chief economist Richard Curtin said that even though consumer sentiment slipped, it remained at quite favourable levels and just above the average reading of 98.5 for 2018.
Dow Jones - Risers
Visa Inc. (V) $139.98 4.73%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $73.50 3.67%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $45.71 3.60%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $222.11 3.57%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $109.57 3.46%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $43.77 2.29%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $44.88 1.47%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $192.47 1.44%
American Express Co. (AXP) $103.00 1.40%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $112.57 1.31%
Dow Jones - Fallers
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $106.95 -4.05%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $133.87 -2.80%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $163.82 -2.70%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $44.68 -2.19%
3M Co. (MMM) $198.23 -1.94%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $69.77 -0.91%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $117.67 -0.56%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $123.65 -0.52%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $81.38 -0.27%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $129.58 0.20%
S&P 500 - Risers
Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) $35.78 12.62%
L Brands Inc (LB) $31.38 10.03%
Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) $12.79 7.22%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $339.56 5.75%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $138.18 5.57%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $211.83 5.55%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $77.92 5.51%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) $15.42 5.40%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $146.74 5.39%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $246.54 4.85%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $5.37 -8.98%
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (JEF) $20.65 -7.02%
Keycorp (KEY) $18.65 -6.38%
Invesco Ltd. (IVZ) $19.94 -5.68%
Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) $64.19 -5.63%
PNC Financial Services Group (PNC) $124.26 -5.59%
Newfield Exploration Co (NFX) $25.19 -5.33%
MetLife Inc. (MET) $43.83 -5.05%
Loews Corp. (L) $46.81 -4.90%
Altria Group Inc. (MO) $60.06 -4.53%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $38.65 9.96%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $339.56 5.75%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $138.18 5.57%
Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO) $129.05 5.55%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $211.83 5.55%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $77.92 5.51%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $246.54 4.85%
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) $532.02 4.68%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $327.50 4.68%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $321.69 4.63%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $32.11 -1.50%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $30.91 -1.15%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $62.13 -1.15%
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) $109.29 -0.91%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $42.99 -0.81%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $303.42 -0.47%
Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ) $41.13 -0.17%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $64.29 -0.00%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $19.99 0.20%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $153.74 0.25%