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More record highs as NASDAQ rallies
After trading at lows of 6617 in March, the tech heavy NASDAQ index continues its impressive run, leading it to breaking the 10,700 level today.
In the last week a new wave of Chinese equity investors have entered the markets, buoyed by government led optimism that a strong recovery is on its way.
As a result we’ve seen several tech stocks reaching new highs, mainly in the FANG grouping.
Amazon is up more than 7% this week With Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple all up between 3 – 4% for the week.
5,000 jobs cut at 2 of the UK’s biggest retailers
Today two of the UK’s largest retail chains confirmed that they would be cutting close to over 5,000 jobs as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boots and John Lewis today stated that they believe that consumer habits were set to change, with customers unlikely to return to their pre-pandemic habits for the foreseeable future.
The UK100 (futures) index dropped to a 11 day low of 6020 on the news.
Initial Jobless claims at 4 month low
Since a high of over 6 million in March, U.S. initial jobless claims have declined on a week to week basis as Americans returned to work.
Today the number of Americans claiming joblessness fell to a four-month low of 1.31 million.
Although the number of claims are decreasing, the fact that claims remain over one million, creates longer term worries about the shape of the economic recovery.
Quote of the day: “There is a huge difference between a good trade and good trading.” – Steve Burns
Biggest Bull
USDCAD: USDCAD bounced from today’s support level of 1.34990 to reach a high of 1.35863 led by a cross of the 10 day and 25 day moving averages.
Biggest Bear
UK100 (futures): After starting the day trading at 6207, the UK100 dropped to a low of 6020 as news broke of job cuts and store closures from 2 of the UK’s largest retailers.
