Wall Street: American stock markets remained bullish on Friday and ended the week with gains. This week was good due to the health of the economy and increased expectations about interest rate cuts. Investors have made mental preparations for several policy changes under the upcoming Trump administration. The S&P 500 and Dow Industrials posted their biggest weekly percentage gains since the beginning of November and the Nasdaq posted its best performance since the beginning of December. The data released this week has dispelled fears that inflation will rise again. In such a situation, expectations of rate cut by the US Fed have increased.
Single-family homebuilding in the U.S. hit a 10-month high, the Commerce Department said Friday, although rising mortgage rates and an oversupply of new homes are likely to curb demand. Newly elected President Donald Trump will be sworn in on Monday. American markets will be closed on that day due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
Equity markets have come under pressure in recent weeks due to uncertainty about the impact of some of Trump’s policies. Experts say that the increase in tariff will again increase inflation in America and will create difficulties in the way of Fed cutting interest rates.
But a solid start to the corporate results season with results from several big banks has provided good support to the stock market this week. The S&P 500 Bank Index (.SPXBK) has gained 7.41 percent in the past week. Jim Baird, chief investment officer of Southfield, Michigan-based Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said we are starting this year in a good mood with strong growth and better corporate earnings. But there are a lot of questions that need answers in terms of fiscal and monetary policy. The market will keep an eye on what Trump’s agenda will be like or how it will take shape. Despite all these questions, we are starting this year in a much better position than in the last few years.
Market trend: Mid and smallcap indices continue to decline, but these 22 smallcap stocks gave double digit returns
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 334.70 points, or 0.78 percent, higher at 43,487.83. At the same time, the S&P 500 index rose 59.32 points or 1.00 percent to close at 5,996.66. The Nasdaq Composite added 291.91 points, or 1.51 percent, to close at 19,630.20. For the week, the Dow rose 3.69%, the S&P rose 2.92% and the Nasdaq rose 2.43%.
Benchmark US The 10-year bond yield rose 1.3 basis points to 4.619 percent. But it appeared to be down slightly from the 14-month high of 4.809 per cent hit earlier this week.