Euro ticks up despite French government collapse; bitcoin breaks $100,000
3 Crypto Stocks to Buy Now: IBIT, COIN, MARA
We provide courses designed to help you make money in the stock market. We have a range of carefully crafted courses to help you achieve your financial goals.
We strive to provide simple and easy to understand market commentary for the everyday investor to digest. No more information overload.
We help you interpret charts & identify patterns in order to predict future price movements that will help you make better investment decisions.
Traders also weighed new inflation data after the core personal consumption expenditures reading for September was released ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week. Core PCE increased 0.3% in last month and 3.7% year over year, matching estimates from economists polled by Dow Jones. Consumer spending increased 0.7%, however, surpassing estimates of 0.5%. PCE is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge..
All three major averages registered steep weekly losses. The Dow and S&P 500 are down 2.1% and 2.5%, respectively, for the week. The Nasdaq has fallen 2.6% in that time, dragged down by sharp weekly declines in Meta Platforms and Google-parent company Alphabet
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped more than 350 points on Friday, capping off a sour week that also saw the S&P 500 enter correction territory.
The 30-stock Dow slumped 366.71 points, or 1.1%, to close at 32,417.59. The S&P 500 fell 0.48% to finish the session at 4,117.37 while the Nasdaq Composite clung on to a 0.38% gain to 12,643.01.
The decline in key tech stocks pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory after falling more than 10% from its closing high in July on Wednesday. This week also saw the index record its worst trading day since February.
Disappointing earnings have pressured the market this week. Ford dropped 14% week to date after the company missed third-quarter expectations and pulled its guidance for the year, citing the UAW strike. Chevron shares were down 13% on the week, after the energy giant reported earnings.
Bitcoin is on pace to post its best week since June, after a big rally earlier this week pushed it out of the narrow range it had been stuck in for much of this year.
The coin is on pace to end the week higher by 14% at the $33,000 level, according to Coin Metrics. At about $1,770, ether is heading for a 10% weekly gain. Coin Metrics measures a week in crypto, which trades 24 hours a day, from the 4:00 p.m. ET stock market close one Friday to the next.
Investors are watching closely to see if bitcoin can find a new floor at current levels. Next week it will get its first testing ground with the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, which will begin Tuesday. Callie Cox, an analyst at investment company eToro, noted that bitcoin tends to do better than stocks on Fed days, having outperformed the S&P 500 on 10 out of the last 13.
“Next week could be a real test for crypto,” she said. “Industry news is exciting, but I worry that investors are forgetting that we’re in an aggressively high rate environment. The Fed will probably reaffirm higher rates in its comments next week too. That could be a tough pill to swallow.”
“I wouldn’t be shocked if Powell entertains the idea of rate cuts,” she added. “Inflation has made a lot of progress, and lately, his language has been more balanced than usual. Powell could be tough, but any semblance of flexibility could entice people back into risky investments like crypto.
— Tanaya Ma
The stock market likely won’t stabilize until the bond market does, according to David Grecsek, managing director of investment strategy and research at Aspiriant.
Investors have paid particularly close interest to bond yields this week as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield crossed the 5% level for the first time since 2007. Going forward, Grecsek said the bond market will need to become less volatile for the stock market to.
“The bond market actually has been the leading indicator for the equity market,” he said. “In order for the equity market to really stabilize and consolidate here, the rate volatility’s got to calm down a little bit. And it’s going to be hard for equities to really settle down until that happens.”
— Alex Harring