Market Brief: Rest and Recovery Friday for Indices, Led by DE, NVDA, and GE
- After a crazy week for global markets, volatility was limited in Friday’s trade, especially once European markets closed for the day.
- FX: The pound’s recovery rally extended again today, taking GBP/USD to a 1-week high in the mid-1.2100s. The kiwi was the weakest major currency in otherwise quiet trade (see our take on the Australian dollar vs. the New Zealand dollar for more).
- US data: U of M consumer sentiment fell sharply to 92.1, well below expectations of 97.0. Housing starts missed expectations, though building permits were strong.
- Commodities: Gold ticked lower in quiet trade, oil gained nearly 1%.
- US indices tacked on 1%-2%, with all the gains captured in the first two hours, followed by sideways price action for the rest of the day.
- Industrials (XLI) were the strongest sector, while defensive-oriented Utilities (XLU) were the weakest.
- Stocks on the Move:
- Deere & Co. (DE) rallied 4% after a beat on revenues. Though earnings missed estimates, the strong sales data suggested that farmers haven’t been hit as hard by US-China trade tensions as expected.
- Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) gained 7% after beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenues.
- General Electric (GE) recovered nearly 10%% after its CEO called allegations of accounting fraud “market manipulation” and bought nearly $2M of stock.
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