Summary:
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New all-time highs for major US indices
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Trade hopes boost sentiment after Ross’s comments
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US2000 back above 1600 but still lagging large caps
Stocks are looking to pick up this week where they left off the last with strong gains seen across the board. There’s a sea of green across European bourses whilst US indices are pointing to not just a record open but all-time highs no all 3 of the major indices -- The S&P500, Nasdaq100 and DJIA. These markets are all trading higher by 0.6-0.75% on the day.
The Dow had been lagging behind the S&P500 and Nasdaq in not surging to record highs but has today made the move above its prior peak of 27400 into uncharted territory. Price is up by over 1700 points (6.5%) in the past month. Source: xStation
The gains can be attributed in part to more hopes on the trade front with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talking up the prospects of completing a first phase agreement with China this month. There was a bit of a blip in markets last week after China sounded fairly downbeat on the trade front but this dip was bought keenly and the combination of a less hawkish than feared Fed and a goldilocks NFP report boosted sentiment further.
Earnings season is still going on for US stocks with UBER a notable company to report today after the closing bell. However, for now we’ll keep the focus on the benchmarks and look at the small-cap Russell 2000 (US2000 on xStation).
The US2000 is now probing prior resistance below 1621 but remains someway from last year’s highs around 1745. There’s been a clear divergence seen growing between large cap stocks (US500) and small caps (US2000) since around the end of Q1 with the former outperforming the latter. Source: xStation
