Wall Street contrasted, ready to end the month of October with the plus sign. At about 4 pm Italian time the Dow Jones is in plaster, with a variation of + 0.07% at 35,775; the S&P 500 drops 0.21% to 4,587 points, while the Nasdaq is -0.43% to 15,382 points.
Amazon and Apple ruin the party at Nasdaq, which just yesterday, before the two Big Tech and components of FAANG stocks rattled off their balance sheets, closed at a record level, along with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.
Amazon and Apple slide by around 4%. However, the two giants do not affect the positive balance of this season of US quarterly earnings. More than 80% of companies listed on the S&P 500 reported better-than-expected earnings and earnings growth, on average, is expected to rise 38.6% year-on-year.
Other stocks include Exxon Mobil (+ 1%) and Chevron (+ 1.2%), after both US oil giants reported better-than-expected quarterly reports, benefiting from the rally in oil prices.
In particular, Chevron saw the free cash flow jump to the highest value in its history during the third quarter. Caterpillar + 1.6% and Microsoft are confirmed today among the best stocks of the Dow Jones.
From the macroeconomic front, together with the data on consumer spending and personal income, the parameter carefully observed by the Federal Reserve for making monetary policy decisions was disclosed, namely the core PCE, a crucial thermometer for monitoring inflation: on a monthly basis he indicator rose by 0.2%, less than the expected + 0.3% and compared to + 0.3% the previous month. On an annual basis, the core PCE was up 3.6%, less than the + 3.7% estimated and at the same pace of growth as in August.
The overall PCE index rose 4.4% yoy, picking up pace from + 4.2% in August, up 0.3% on a monthly basis.
Personal income fell by 1%, worse than the expected -0.2% and after the previous growth of + 0.2%. Consumer spending, on the other hand, grew by 0.6%, better than the + 0.5% expected, albeit at a halving rate compared to the previous + 1%.
Returning to the trend of the US stock exchange, it must be said that all three US stock indices are preparing to end the week in positive territory for the fourth consecutive week, confirming the excellent performance in October, which has now come to an end.
The S&P 500 gained 6.7% in October, reporting the best performance since November 2020; the Dow Jones was up 5.6%, while the Nasdaq rallied 6.9%.
Investors continue to snub the US GDP data for the third quarter, released yesterday, which rose at an annualized rate of 2%, below the + 2.8% expected by the consensus.
“GDP told us something we already knew, namely that the economy slowed down considerably in the third quarter – commented Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, according to the CNBC website – La buona news is that we believe that the coming quarters will more than compensate for the slowdown, given that the health situation of Covid continues to improve “.