More chinks in market sentiment as the cracks in the surging tech sector widened a touch last week.
Driving these cracks are the continuing surge in global and US coronavirus infections – the latter are running at more than 70,000 a day and heading higher while over 14.2 million people have been infected worldwide.
Global deaths climbed over 600,000 on Sunday.
In Australia, infection rates in NSW and Victoria are a big concern and have analysts wondering if the measures to be outlined in Thursday’s mini-budget statement will be enough to support jobs if the economy slows.
Wall Street was solid last week, except for the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell while the once high flying Chinese market and its bevy of tech giants sold off and fell sharply.
Friday was an unconvincing day for all markets and as a result, the ASX futures market ended the session up just 2 points – that means a flat start to trading today and possibly a day in the red on the continuing COVID-19 fears.
Eurozone shares fell 0.1% on Friday as investors awaited the outcome of an EU leaders meeting in relation to a proposed huge recovery fund.
The US S&P 500 edged up 0.3% but it was shaky as the June quarter earnings season started.
There are more than 80 S&P 500 stocks due to report this week – it will be dominated by airlines, energy and Microsoft.
Most major share markets rose over the past week as positive news on vaccines and mostly good economic data offset a continuing rise in new coronavirus cases. US shares rose 1.2% and Eurozone and Japanese shares gained 1.8%.
Australian shares rose 1.9% and benefitted from the positive US lead with strong gains in materials, utilities, retail and financial shares helping to offset concerns about the continuing surge in cases in Victoria.
Chinese shares fell 4.4% though after a very strong gain so far this month after data showed Chinese June quarter GDP rebounded by more than expected. But retail sales fell for a 5th month in a row and investment remains weak.
Bond yields were generally little changed, and oil, metal and iron ore prices rose. The Australian dollar also rose as the US dollar fell.
Friday saw on Wall Street saw the Dow close at 26,671.95, down 62.76 points, or 0.23%, while the S&P 500 edged up 9.16 points, or 0.28%, to close at 3,224.73. The Nasdaq was up 29.36 points, or 0.28%, ending the week at 10,503.19.
For the week, the Dow finished 2.3% higher, the S&P 500 booked a gain of 1.3%, but the Nasdaq lost 1.1%.
The US posted a record of more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day Friday, the highest reported by any country since the start of the outbreak. The U.S. now has more than 3.7 million cases, or about a quarter of the global total, and over 140,000 deaths.
Now the Trump administration wants to eliminate all federal funding on testing and tracing, as Republicans in the US Senate have proposed. That’s a proposal that will cause the American economy to collapse in a few months time.
