Market climbs a wall of Corona worry to post weekly gains.
Last week witnessed a continued struggle between bulls and bears. As markets attempt to stabilize in the wake of Covad-19, the major Indexes saw a continuation of highly volatile trading, But despite some sharp drops and moments of extreme volatility and price action-,the market scaled the wall of worry and finished higher with a sharp rally Friday closing out the week.
The S&P 500 Index, Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 3.0%, 2.2% and 6.1% respectively. That made investors look forward to the next week though the volatility was expected to continue.
April 20, Monday
The first day of the week started poorly as a result of oil prices dropping sharply. That sparked fears of energy demand dropping. But by afternoon there was a reverse in the trend, with Amazon ($AMZN), Netflix ($NFLX) and AMD ($AMD) leading the charge. This reversal was despite crude prices dropping 40%. Amazon, Netflix and AMD were stocks that benefited from the stay-at-home trend.
The Dow ended the day at 2,823.16, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended at 8,560.73 and 23,650.44 respectively.
April 21, Tuesday
Tuesday was a different story, ending in the red. This was because of fears regarding the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the economy. There were also concerns about the oversupply of oil, which caused the commodity to spend the day down. The worst hit were technology stocks.
As the trading session ended, the S&P 500 was 87 points off and Dow Jones 632 points off.
Nasdaq Composite closed at 8,263.23.
S&P 500 closed at 2,736.56.
Dow ended the day at 23,018.88
April 22, Wednesday
Wednesday was when the bulls took charge. The stock market rebounded and after back-to-back losses, it was a strong opening for the market. The Dow soared to over 200 points in just the initial few minutes of trading. Blue chip gains were the ones responsible, but they weren’t the only ones. Crude oil prices rebounding played a huge part in the rally.
Nasdaq gained over 200 points, ending at 8,495.38.
The S&P 500 closed at 2,799.31
Dow Jones ended at 23,475.82.
April 23, Thursday
The oil rebound continued on Thursday. Blue chips soared by over 400 points in just the first hour. But the early gains would soon be retraced. The Labor Department’s revelation of weekly jobless claims soaring by 4.4 million was responsible for this, since it was higher than the predicted 4.3 million rise. Overall, jobless claims touched 26 million.
Another contributor to the retracing was the new home sales dropping by 15.4%.
The Nasdaq Composite index closed at 8,495.38, while Dow Jones ended at 23,515.26.
S&P 500 closed at 2,797.80.
April 24, Friday
As the week drew to a close, early indications pointed to a strong day of trading as the equity futures were higher in the early dealings. The S&P 500 held its early gains and rose to finish the day at 2,836.74, its highest close of the week. NASDAQ also had its highest finish of the week at 8,634.52 while the Dow Jones also grew to 23,775.27.
It was another week of volatility, with crude oil causing much of the up and down movement. Blue chips also played an influential part. The middle of the week saw a rebound that was again reversed by the disappointing jobless claims and home sales reports.
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