Day Traders Diary

7/24/20

The major averages pulled back once again to wrap up a volatile week of trading with tech shares struggling and U.S.-China tensions rising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 182 points, or 0.6%, to 26,469. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, or 20 points, to 3,215.63 while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.9%, or 98 points, to 10,363.

Dow-component Intel plunged more than 16% after the chipmaker offered disappointing guidance for the third quarter and delayed the release of its next-generation chips. Shares of Facebook, Tesla, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft all traded lower as well. Tesla dropped 5% while Amazon and Netflix bucked the negative trend, rising 0.8% each. 

The 30-stock benchmark dropped 0.7% for the week, snapping a three-week winning streak. The S&P 500 dipped 0.2% this week, posting its first weekly decline in four weeks. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, lost 1.3% this week for its first back-to-back weekly losses since May.

This week's volatile trading action comes amid rising tensions between China and the U.S. China ordered the closure of a U.S. consulate in Chengdu, retaliating after Washington shut the Chinese consulate in Houston earlier this week. China markets plunged in response, with the Shanghai Composite dropping 3.9% overnight. The rising tensions helped gold surge to a record closing high, settling 0.4% higher at $1,897.50 per ounce.

The economic data has not helped as well as new jobless claims showed a risen for the first time since March. New jobless claims came in at about 1.42 million, versus the just over 1.3 million from the prior week.

Virus cases also mounted further, with US cases topping four million on Thursday to have doubled over the past six weeks alone, and now comprise about one-quarter of the global total, according to Johns Hopkins data. New deaths in each of California and Florida were at records as of Thursday's counts, and the US death toll rose to more than 143,000. California's cases rose by more than 12,000 for the second-highest increase since the start of the pandemic.

In other U.S. corporate news, Goldman Sachs settled its 1MDB case for $3.9 billion, Verizon rose nearly 2% beating top and bottom-line estimates, American Express dropped a percent reporting mixed quarterly results while Walt Disney slid half a percent after delaying several blockbuster movies by a year.

U.S. Treasuries finished little changed. The 2-yr yield declined one basis point to 0.14%, and the 10-yr yield was flat at 0.58%. Gold futures rose 0.4% to $1897.50/ozt -- its highest settlement price ever amid continued weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index (94.39, -0.30, -0.3%). WTI crude futures settled little changed at $41.08/bbl.