S&P 500 Index – Highlights Of The Past Week

The S&P 500 index remained undecided for the better part of the past week. The market opened at 2,965.81 level. As per the chart analysis, it managed to keep above the opening level for the rest of the week. Following a weekly high of 3,006.99 on Thursday, October 17^th, 2019, the market closed 2,985.98 level by the end of the week. All in all, the index presented a 0.5% gain in the last week. A 0.6% gain was observed in the week before that.

While the index has challenged the crucial 3,000 level resistance multiple times in the past week, it has failed to sustainably break it so far.

Small-Cap Stock Market Index Rose By 1.6% In The Past Week

According to the analysts, the pace for smaller stocks was better than the broader market. This can possibly hint towards the growing confidence among the investors. The Russell 2000 index rallied up by 1.6% in the last week. The gain for the week before that was reported at almost half, i-e, 0.8%.

Minimal change was reported on bond prices. The 10-year treasury continued to hold a yield of 1.75% through much of the past week. While the U.S – China trade war continued to keep the investors nervous, the better than expected results for businesses like UnitedHealth Group, JPMorgan Chase, and Kansas City Southern managed to ease them off a little.

According to a recent report by FactSet, financial experts have opinionated that a drop of 5% can be expected in the S&P 500 listed companies in the weeks to come. The technology sector, in particular, presented major losses on Friday with much of it being contributed by Nvidia (2% drop) and Micron Technology (4.5% drop).

Stocks for communications services were also reported to have received a strong hit as Netflix took the lead in this league with a significant decline of 6.2%. On the other hand, Boeing experienced a drop of 6.8% that kept the industrial sector under pressure as well.

Following the quarterly report, ETrade Financial was reported to have gained as much as 4.6%. Improved revenue and sales growth as evident from Coca Cola’s third-quarter performance review also fueled a hike of 1.8% in its share prices.

Johnson and Johnson made an announcement last week that one of the lots of the popular baby powder was found contaminated with asbestos in trace amounts. While the lot was immediately recalled, the stock still fell steeply by 6.2%.

Stocks To Look For In The Upcoming Week

The financial experts have labeled McDonald’s, Boeing, American Airlines Group, and Amazon as the stocks of interest for the upcoming week with potential for remarkable earnings on the right trades.