Daily Market Reports | Nov 20 2023
By Greg Peel
Friday on their Mind
Wall Street took a breather on Thursday night following another strong run and the ASX200 did the same on Friday, chopping around in a tight range before finishing only slightly lower.
There seemed little appetite to continue buying ahead of the weekend after the index put on 1% over the week, despite another -8 point fall in both the Aussie two and ten-year yields.
Rate-sensitive sectors were both bought and sold, with industrials, technology and healthcare closing mildly higher while real estate, communication services and the banks all mildly fell.
Consumer sectors were on the nose, with staples falling -0.7% and discretionary -1.0% ahead of a week in which Australian retailers give thanks and consumers make the most of it ahead of Christmas.
There were some notable falls among ASX200 and 300 stocks for the likes of Accent Group ((AX1)), Car Group ((CAR)), formerly Carsales, Cettire ((CTT)) and Lovisa Holdings ((LOV)).
Energy was the worst performer (-1.6%) on a -4% fall in oil prices, which spun into a 4% gain on Friday night. Utilities lost -1.0%.
Materials rose 0.4% thanks to iron ore and gold.
Presumably, there was an element of not wanting to take risk home for the weekend in a world in which anything might happen in two days. Wall Street again closed flat on Friday night but our futures were up 28 points on Saturday morning, with the swing in oil prices about the only catalyst.
Yet Tuesday brings the minutes of the November RBA meeting (another hike in December?), and Tuesday night brings the minutes of the Fed meeting (are we done?).
Tuesday night also brings one of the most critical earnings reports of the US season, being that of Nvidia.
Three-Peat
Wall Street just fell over the line on Friday night but marked a third straight week of gains, which have taken the S&P500 from 4100 to over 4500.
The Dow rose 1.9% for the week, the S&P 2.2% and the Nasdaq 2.4%.
The uniformity of those gains underscores a rally (9.6% for the S&P) off the low that has been most notable in its breadth, as opposed to past rallies led almost solely by the Magnificent Seven mega-techs.
While the Mag7 has still performed well, the S&P500 Equal-Weight index, or as some like to call it, the S&P493, has also rallied solidly after having been in the doldrums for most of the year. Ditto the Russel 2000 small cap index, which last week alone gained over 5%.
There was a slight scare in the last hour of trade on Friday night with the shock announcement the board of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, had sacked its CEO for apparently not providing the sort of feedback consistent with the requirements of a board charged with fiduciary responsibilities.
There is no truth to the rumour the new CEO will be AI-generated.
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