Having already seen heavy losses on Thursday night, the Dow Jones avoided the kind of declines suffered in Europe – despite a pair of disappointing PMIs, and fears over US-China tensions.
Falling 0.3%, the Dow spent Friday afternoon the wrong side of 26600 – well off the 26400 pre-market lows, but even further from yesterday’s 27200-teasing intraday highs.
That relatively minor dip was in stark contrast to Europe’s performance. The FTSE shed 1.2%, tumbling below 6150, while the DAX and CAC plunged 1.8% and 1.5% respectively.
Admittedly, those losses were better than what was seen just after the bell, Europe – unlike the US – benefiting from a series of flash PMI-beats.
Reflecting the mood of the markets – impacted by the tit-for-tat shuttering of consulates in Houston and Chengdu – gold’s safe haven appeal showed no signs of letting up. Rising another 0.7%, the precious metal crossed $1900 per ounce for the first time since September 2011.
Heading into the weekend, investors are going to be anxiously scanning the papers not only for the latest covid-19 numbers, but for signs the relationship between the US and China is about to take another turn for the worse.
There might also be a bit more to next week’s trading, with the calendar full of Fed statements, second quarter GDP readings, and earnings from mega-stocks like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and pandemic-favourite Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
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