US equities rebounded on Fri, buoyed by strong earnings and outlook from Apple (AAPL US, +6.98%) and Microsoft (MSFT US, +2.81%).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 564.69 pts, or 1.65%, to close at 34,725.47. The S&P 500 index rose 2.43%. For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.77%. Meanwhile Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.13%. The small cap Russell 2000 gained 1.93%.
The 10-year Treasury note yield slipped 3.0 basis points (bps) to 1.7694%.
Gold extended its biggest weekly loss since Aug. The most actively traded US gold futures (Apr) contracts settled down $7.60, or 0.4%, at US$1,786.60/oz. March silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 37.5 cents, or 1.7%, to end at US$22.301/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, was barely changed at 97.270.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up 69 cents at US$90.03/bbl and 21 cents at US$86.82/bbl respectively. Natural gas futures jumped as much as 14% on Fri in New York as a winter storm hit the US Northeast.
European equity markets finished lower last Fri. The UK FTSE lost 1.17%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.82%, while the German DAX retreated 1.32%.
Bucking the trend, retailer H&M (HMB SS, +5.05%) rose last Fri, after posting strong margins in 4Q and buyback announcement.
Feb 1st and 2nd are public holidays in Singapore. There will be no Wealth Daily.
We wish our readers a very happy Lunar New Year! We all deserve it.