The Nasdaq Composite reached record intraday highs on Wednesday before falling back sharply on Thursday. Over the week, growth stocks generally lagged value shares. Small-caps also held up much better than large-caps. 42% of the companies in the S&P 500 Index reported their Q3 earnings over the week, including five of the Mag 7. Microsoft and Apple were the biggest losers of the week whereas Amazon and Google gained. On the macro side, the Labor Department reported “essentially unchanged” nonfarm payrolls over the month, with employers adding only 12,000 jobs—the lowest number since December 2020. It included a decline of 44,000 jobs due to the Boeing strike. Friday also brought news that the ISM gauge of manufacturing activity had declined unexpectedly for the 7th straight month to 46.5, its lowest level in 15 months. Despite these weak macro data, the 10-year U.S. Treasury note hit another four-month intraday high (4.37%) on Friday. In the rest of the world, the STOXX Europe 600 Index ended the week 1.5% lower despite the eurozone economy expanding 0.4% QoQ in Q3 (vs. 0.2% expected). Japan’s stock markets rose over the week, with the Nikkei 225 Index gaining 0.4% and the broader TOPIX Index up 1.0%, as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) held rates steady amid political uncertainty.Gold retreated after hitting a new all-time high. Oil declined by more than 3%. Bitcoin crossed $73k before pulling back below $70k on Friday.
Have a great week-end
Charles for the team