Fri 7 Nov: After the Bell🔒

Your 5’ evening market wrap 📄📈

→ Indices + Large Caps + FX + Treasuries (yield curve)+ Commodities tables on the ‘Market Data’ post.

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☺️ Friday,

It was a volatile end to the week for markets, with investor sentiment swinging on AI-related headlines, and any economic data available in the absence of official releases due to the government shutdown. Tech stocks, in particular, came under pressure as investors questioned lofty AI-stocks valuations, and every negative economic headline triggered sharp selloffs in the sector.

Today’s weak data on US consumer confidence added to the unease. Preliminary results from the University of Michigan showed household sentiment slipping toward record-low levels, as worries mount over the economic impact of the prolonged government shutdown. This follows yesterday’s report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, highlighting the steepest private-sector job losses for October in 22 years, leaving the lack of official employment data even more evident.

The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 2% intraday before rebounding sharply, but still ended the week down roughly 3%, its worst weekly performance in months. Stocks recovered somewhat toward the close amid reports that Senate Democrats were advancing a new plan to reopen the government. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed a one-year extension of expiring healthcare subsidies to break the month-long stalemate, following an earlier Republican proposal that remains at odds with Democratic priorities on the Affordable Care Act.

For the week, technology stocks were the weakest performers with a 4% decline, followed by communication services, which include a few mega-cap names, down 2.3%.