Market Recap: Stocks Rise, but S&P 500 Ends Weekly Gains

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The US stock market shook off the three consecutive declines during the middle of the week, finishing Friday with slightly higher profits, although the moderate rebound wasn’t enough for the S&P 500 index from ending its recorded longest stretches of weekly gains from two years ago.

Sectors that rely on consumer spendings such as health care companies and stocks and banks powered most of the rebound, outweighing the decline in oil prices and losses in real estate, technology, and other industries.

The week ended with the S&P 500 index rising 0.2%, gaining about 6.75 points towards 3,110.29. However, it has previously tracked a 0.3% rise before going down by 0.1%.

About 96% of shares under the S&P 500 index have already reported their earnings for the summer, and are expected to track a 2.3% decline from the previous year. Although the shares have dropped, it’s modestly better than the 4% decline that analysts were expecting originally.

On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reported a 0.4% rise, gaining 109.33 points towards 27,875.62. The Nasdaq also came out with a 0.2% increase, going up by 13.67 points towards 8,519.88.

Further, the Russell 2000 index tracked a 0.3% increase, gaining 4.98 points towards 1,588.94, suggesting that market players are favoring smaller company stocks.

In European stocks, major stock indexes also finished the week broadly higher, with bond prices having very modest change.

Despite the majority downs in the week, the major stock indexes in the US are still on track for recording some strong gains for the year. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are reporting over a 24% increase, while the Dow is going for 20% gains for the year.

Friday was also a bright spot for most of the retail sector. Macy’s has reported a 5.2% increase on the last trading day, cutting its losses early in the week, although it still ended with about 8% loss for the entire week after reporting its sales and profit cut for the year as shoppers favor heading online instead of going to stores. Nordstrom, on the other hand, gained over 10.6% after reported much bigger sales for the last quarter, which was more than what Wall Street predicted.

Overall, the global market was churned the majority of the week due to the growing uncertainty about whether the US and China will come to a trade agreement before 2019 ends as well as the impending tariff increase on most Chinese goods which is set to take effect on December 15.