September 7 – September 11 Week in Review
It was another rough one for investors as the selling from the prior week carried over to last week in holiday shortened trading. The S&P 500 fell 2.5%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7%, and the Russell 2000 fell 2.5%.
The energy sector dropped 6.4% amid weakening oil prices but the biggest weights on the market were the information technology, communication services, and financials sectors. Only the materials sector finished higher for its second straight weekly gain.
Last week's selling was described by most investors as technically oriented. Though there several negative sounding stories that may have dampened risk sentiment, they ultimately appeared to be good excuses for some good old fashioned profit taking.
Investor favorites Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook fell between 4.4% and 7.4%. Tesla fell 10.9% and was denied a spot in the S&P 500 by the index committee.
As for the negative headlines, the Senate failed to pass its $300 billion coronavirus relief bill, AstraZeneca announced it was pausing its COVID-19 vaccine trial in the UK due to a serious adverse reaction in a patient, President Trump suggested disincentives for U.S. companies to outsource jobs to China, and China's largest semiconductor foundry could reportedly be added to a trade blacklist.
By week's end, the S&P 500 was down 7% from its record high and the Nasdaq was down 10% from its record high. A consolation for the bulls was that the S&P 500 finished above its 50-day moving average. The Nasdaq did not, though.
In the bond market U.S. Treasuries ended the week with modest gains. The 2 year yield declined three basis points to 0.13%, and the 10 year yield declined five basis points to 0.67%.
In other markets the U.S. Dollar Index advanced 0.6% to 93.28, WTI crude continued to fall ending the week at $37.34 a barrel, and gold closed at $1,948.10 an ounce.
September 14 – September 18 Economic Calendar