The second phase of this week's final trading session brings sizable gains in Wall Street indices. US100 futures broke above the zone of recent local highs today and are now trading at levels not seen since late September of this year.
BigTech companies are doing well, with Meta Platforms (META.US) shares gaining the most - the company signed a new deal today to supply VR 'headsets' with China's Tencent. The market is reading this positively as a potential signal of increased exposure to China, which Meta has so far decidedly avoided after several regulatory battles. Microsoft (MSFT.US), Alphabet (GOOGL.US) and Nvidia (NVDA.US) stocks are also doing well.
The stock market is gaining despite fairly hawkish voices from the Fed. Mary Daly of the San Francisco Fed indicated today, following Powell, that policy has become restrictive and the risk of doing too much is balanced, but remains uncertain whether the cycle is definitely over - it is still too early to declare victory over inflation. The announcements from the Fed appear to have eased the recent decline in oil prices, which the market reads as a strongly 'disinflationary' signal that mitigates the risk of renewed price pressures in the economy.
A chart of the US100 benchmark quotations. Source: xStation
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