Stocks sweep to broad gains, approach July highs

Stocks
Published on: September 19, 2019
Author: Amy Liu

Stocks scored a broad-based advance, led by tariff sensitive tech and industrial names after China extended an olive branch ahead of next month’s trade talks with the U.S. by releasing a list of products it will exempt from higher tariffs, although key farm products were not included.

The S&P and Dow both closed within 0.8% of their all-time highs reached in July, but the blue-chip benchmarks continue to be eclipsed by small caps, as the Russell 2000 climbed another 2% today to extend its gain for the week to 4.7%.

Apple (+3.2%) provided leadership in the tech sector (+1%) as well as the broader market, with strong showing also coming from the health care (+1%), utilities (+1%), industrials (+1%), materials (+1%) and communication services (+1%) sectors; the real estate sector (-0.3%) was the day’s only holdout.

The energy sector started strongly as it continued to benefit from the recent rotation into value-oriented areas but tumbled from its highs as October WTI crude sank 2.9% to $55.75/bbl on reports that Pres. Trump may want to ease sanctions on Iran.

The improved sentiment on Wall Street again was reflected in rising U.S. Treasury yields, as the two-year yield added a basis point to 1.67% and the 10-year yield gained 3 bps to 1.73%.

Source: seekingalpha.com