Navarro quashes latest US-Sino rumour ahead of US session

Summary:

• Navarro dismisses reports US to restrict Chinese companies 

• US indices to begin little changed

• Apple receives broker upgrade

There was a flurry of activity in US stock benchmarks late on Friday as European traders hoping to call it a week were caught up in another market moving trade story just before the weekend. News that the US is considering restrictions on Chinese companies caused a wave of selling which sent the S&P500 down to its lowest level since early September before the market bounced into the close. 

This afternoon Peter Navarro, an advisor on trade for the White House, moved to quash these reports during an interview on CNBC where he branded them as “fake news”:

“That story, which appeared in Bloomberg: I’ve read it far more carefully than it was written,” Navarro told CNBC. “Over half of it was highly inaccurate or simply flat-out false.”

The market remains highly sensitive to any developments on this front as well as the latest on the possible trump impeachment and traders should keep a keen eye on any reports on these. US indices has been trading higher for much of the morning but there has actually been some selling in the past hour despite the Navarro comments and the S&P500 is only trading a couple points above where it ended last week. 

The S&P500 has been in a falling channel in recent weeks with the lower bound now coinciding broadly with the breakout level seen around 2945. Price is close to last week’s closing level of 2963 ahead of the opening bell. Source: xStation 

In company news Apple shares have received a favourable upgrade with an analyst at J.P. Morgan lifting the price target to $265 from $243 previously. This would represent a gain of more than 20% from Friday’s close.  The analyst anticipates stronger iPhone sales and expects “investor sentiment on AAPL shares to improve materially given the firm’s ability to drive upward revision to volume expectations.”

Apple shares are expected to start a little higher this afternoon with the stock receiving a boost after an analyst at JP Morgan raised their price target to $265. Source: xStation