By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK- Global stocks registered a strong weekly gain on Friday while US Treasury yields slipped as markets eyed President-elect Donald Trump’s likely policies and their impact on the US economy, even as bitcoin traded near the $100,000 threshold.
Traders are bracing for Trump’s agenda after he takes office in January, which is expected to include tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation. Trump has been nominating senior officials in his administration, and markets are awaiting his pick for Treasury secretary.
All three Wall Street indexes finished higher and each notched a weekly gain. Industrials, consumer discretionary, financials and consumer staples drove gains while communication services, utilities and technology equities were the biggest losers.
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, ended down 3.2 percent after the artificial intelligence chipmaker reported strong quarterly results but issued lacklustre sales forecasts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.97 percent to 44,296.51, the S&P 500 rose 0.35 percent to 5,969.34 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.16 percent to 19,003.65.
Europe’s Stoxx 600 share index ended the week 1 percent higher, snapping four straight weeks of losses. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.33 percent to 854.22and gained about 1.4 percent for the week.
“The earnings of Nvidia were really solid and the market traded off a little bit but I don’t think it was a major event that it could have been,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at SiebertNXT in New York.
“So we put that behind us and when we look at what else might be driving the market this week … People are starting to think about what has happened to the market since Trump was elected and some of the appointments he’s been making.”
The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes fell 1.4 basis points to 4.418 percent, as markets reassess future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve given expectations that some of Trump’s policies could be inflationary. The market is now pricing in a 53 percent probability the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in December.
Bets that Trump’s administration will take a lighter-touch approach to regulation also propelled bitcoin to the brink of $100,000 for the first time. The world’s largest cryptocurrency gained 1.33 percent to $99,384.00. Ethereum declined 1.59 percent to $3,295.40. – Reuters
