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Market Recap
WEEK OF NOV. 4 THROUGH NOV. 8, 2024
Last week, the S&P 500 closed just shy of a record 6,000 on the back of a strong weekly performance after Donald Trump won the US presidential election and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points. The benchmark equity index ended Friday's session at 5,995.54, up from the previous week's close of 5,728.80, rebounding from two consecutive weekly losses. All sectors notched gains, led by consumer discretionary's 7.6% jump. Energy, industrials, financials and technology also outpaced the headline index's 4.7% rise.
Trump, the Republican nominee, decisively defeated Kamala Harris, vice president and the Democratic candidate, in Tuesday's vote. His return to the White House will have investors watching the impact of potential new tariffs, the labor market, changes in immigration policy and benefits to top technology firms, according to analysts.
The Federal Open Market Committee reduced interest rates to a range of 4.50% to 4.75%, following a 50-basis-point cut in September. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that the results of the presidential and congressional elections are not expected to have an impact on near-term monetary policy decisions, including during the FOMC's December meeting.
The US services sector continued to expand in October, according to separate reports from Institute for Supply Management and S&P Global (SPGI) released during the week. Recent data showed that the manufacturing sector remained in contraction territory last month amid output weakness.
Consumer discretionary's strong weekly performance was led by a 29% jump in Tesla (TSLA) shares on bets that the electric vehicle maker stands to benefit from Trump's victory. The rally pushed the company's market cap past $1 trillion on Friday.
The tech sector was aided by a 39% rise in software maker Palantir Technologies (PLTR), which delivered a quarterly beat and increased its full-year guidance amid growing adoption of its Artificial Intelligence Platform.
Communication services rose 3.7% for the week. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shares jumped 12% as the company logged the strongest quarterly gain in subscribers for its Max streaming platform in the September period. Match Group (MTCH) tumbled 14% after it issued a downbeat quarterly revenue outlook following a third-quarter miss.
The materials sector saw a 1.5% weekly gain despite a 32% slump in Celanese (CE), which posted a third-quarter top- and bottom-line miss.
Health care grew 1.6% for the week amid a 12% rise in Viatris (VTRS) following a quarterly beat. Moderna (MRNA) saw a 14% weekly drop even as the drugmaker got a boost in the third quarter from an earlier US approval of its updated COVID-19 vaccine.
Home Depot (HD), Cisco (CSCO), Walt Disney (DIS) and AstraZeneca (AZN) are among the major companies scheduled to post results this week.
On this week's economic calendar, it will feature official US consumer and producer inflation reports, as well as retail sales data for October.
