Last week ended on Wall Street on Fri with mixed results. The S&P 500 and the Dow were weighed down by declines among heavyweight financial stocks, while the Nasdaq edged higher on rebounding tech shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 201.81 pts, or 0.56%, to close at 35,911.81. The broader S&P 500 index rose 0.08%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.59%. The small cap Russell 2000 gained 0.14%.
Four major financial firms reported results on Fri. Their shares were generally unable to keep their upward momentum despite meeting analysts’ estimates for revenue and earnings. JP Morgan (JPM US, -6.15%), Citigroup (C US, -1.25%), and Blackrock (BLK US, -2.2%) shares fell.
The exception was Wells Fargo (WFC US, +3.7%). Perhaps Wells Fargo’s shares rose because investors were less certain that the scandal-prone bank would meet expectations.
Casino stocks Las Vegas Sands (LVS US, +14.1%) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN US, +8.6%) surged after Macau’s government announced it would allow just six casino licenses in the gambling hub.
The 10-year Treasury note yield notched up 8.0 basis points (bps) to 1.7841%.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Feb) contracts settled down $4.90, or 0.3%, at US$1,816.50/oz. March silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 24.4 cents, or 1.1%, to end at US$22.918/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, was nearly unchanged at 95.165.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $1.59 at US$86.06/bbl and $1.70 at US$83.82/bbl respectively.
European equity markets finished lower last Fri. The UK FTSE lost 0.28%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.81%, while the German DAX retreated 0.93%.
US stock markets and most banks will be closed today (Mon) in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.