Summary:
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S&P500 comes within 5 points of record peak
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Solid US retail sales; Uni Mich beats forecasts
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Apple shares decline as GS lowers forecast
It’s been another good week on the whole for US stock markets with gains seen in all the main benchmarks after more good news on the US-China trade front. After a couple weeks of gains that were driven in part by improving rhetoric on trade tensions, the past few days have seen the first tangible acts with the US announcing a 2-week delay on the October tariffs and China announcing that it would not impose additional tariffs on soybeans, pork and other agricultural goods.
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The S&P500 futures have made a strong push up through 300 mark to trade just 5 points from the all-time high of 3029. Source: xStation
On the data front there’s two economic releases of note that have come out this afternoon with both still pointing to a fairly healthy US consumer. The advance US retail sales for August came in at +0.4% M/M, above the +0.2% expected. The prior was also revised higher, to now stand at +0.8% after an initial print of +0.7%. A little bit of the shine could be seen to have been taken off the reading with the ex autos figures coming in flat at 0.0% against an expected +0.1% but on the whole it’s still a fairly healthy reading. The latest University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading came in at 92.0 vs 90.4 exp and 89.8 prior - revised lower from 92.1.
Shares in Apple have gotten off on the wrong foot today, falling by around 1.5% after Goldman Sachs lowered their price target to $165 per share from $187 previously. This rationale behind this move is stated as a belief that accounting for a planned Apple TV+free trial is likely to have a material negative impact on average selling prices. The stock has enjoyed a good week with a positive reaction seen to the latest product launch, but this latest news threatens to halt the rally in its tracks with a sizable gap lower seen after a shooting star was printed near 226 yesterday.
Shares in Apple have dropped lower on the broker downgrade, with the target of $165 some 25% below the current market. Source: xStation
