On Friday, October 18, Eastern time, the Dow and the S&P 500 hit record closing highs, and the three major stock indexes recorded gains for the sixth consecutive week, setting a record for the longest weekly winning streak since the end of 2023.
Gold and silver rose again, and spot gold and COMEX gold futures continued to hit new highs; Spot silver broke through the important resistance level of the $33 mark for the first time in 12 years, and COMEX silver futures rose as much as 6.5% on the day.
China's assets exploded, popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 3.03%, and MINISO and Shell rose more than 8%.
The three major stock indexes posted gains for the sixth consecutive week
At Friday's close, the Dow rose 36.86 points, or 0.09%, to 43,275.91, the Nasdaq rose 115.94 points, or 0.63%, to 18,489.55, and the S&P 500 added 23.20 points, or 0.40%, to 5,864.67.
In Friday's session, the Dow rose as high as 43,325.09 points, a record intraday high.
All three major U.S. stock indexes recorded gains for the sixth consecutive week, with the Dow up 0.96%, the S&P 500 up 0.85%, and the Nasdaq up 0.8%.
A number of Fed officials spoke. The Fed's Bostic said there was no rush to get the Fed back to a neutral rate. The nominal neutral interest rate is in the range of 3%~3.5%. When inflation picks up, the Fed will act. The Fed's 50 basis point rate cut gives it the ability to deal with all oddities. If inflation continues to come down, the Fed will cut rates further. The independence of the Fed is important for monetary policy.
The New York Fed of United States released a new indicator called the Reserve Demand Resilience Index. The indicator shows that the United States banking system remains adequate, suggesting that the Fed can continue to reduce liquidity in the financial system through quantitative tightening programs.
The IMF warns that the current global economy is facing a series of challenges, such as war, trade frictions, high debt and low growth, which may keep the economy in a long-term downturn, which in turn affects countries' investment in social and environmental issues.
In terms of overseas central bank news, the Bank of Japan said on Friday that it must pay attention to the economic impact of unstable markets and overseas risks, indicating that the bank has no urgency to raise interest rates for the time being.
The dollar fell 0.2% against the yen to 149.86 yen after the Bank of Japan's statement, after breaking the psychological barrier of 150 for the first time overnight.
Gold and silver prices soar
Spot gold and COMEX gold futures both continued to hit new highs.
Spot gold rose 1.07% to $2,721.49 an ounce, up 2.44% for the week; COMEX gold futures rose 1.08% to $2,736.8 an ounce, up 2.28% for the week.
Spot silver broke through the important resistance level of $33 to hit a 12-year high.
Spot silver rose 6.37% to $33.7162 an ounce, up 6.93% this week; COMEX silver futures rose 6.77% to $33.955 an ounce, up 6.9% for the week.
Max Layton, head of global commodity research at Citi, expects gold to reach US$3,000 an ounce in the next six to 12 months, boosting ETF and investment demand for gold as a store of wealth amid high economic uncertainty in United States and Europe.
Layton added that silver is expected to rise strongly to $35 an ounce over the next three months.
Netflix rose more than 11%
Netflix (Netflix), a video streaming service provider in United States, announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024: revenue of $9.825 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.0%; net profit was US$2.364 billion, a year-on-year increase of 41%; Earnings per share were $5.40, up from $3.73 in the year-ago quarter.
Netflix's third-quarter revenue and earnings per share beat Wall Street analysts' expectations, its outlook for fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 revenue and earnings per share both beat analysts' expectations, and its outlook for fiscal 2025 revenue also beat expectations.
Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $750 from $705 after the earnings report. BofA raised its price target to $800 from $740. Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $830 from $820.
As of the close, Netflix's stock price rose more than 11%.
The new Boeing safety review will take three months
The Federal Aviation Administration of United States said Friday that it would launch a new safety review of Boeing. The agency continues to actively monitor the company after a flight emergency in January.
The new review, which will look at issues such as the quality of risk assessments, resource allocation and compliance with regulatory requirements, is expected to take three months, according to the United States FAA.
Most airline stocks rose, with United States Airlines and Southwest Airlines up more than 2%, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines up about 1%, and Boeing falling slightly.
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose
Popular Chinese concept stocks generally rose, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose 3.03%, MINISO and Shell rose more than 8%, Li Auto, Daqo New Energy, EHang Intelligent rose more than 6%, Ctrip Group, Land Holdings, Zhihu rose more than 5%, Kingsoft Cloud, Century Internet, Huazhu Group, Bilibili, Good Future, Weibo, NetEase rose more than 3%, Jingdong Group, Xiaopeng Motors, Baidu Group, Alibaba rose more than 2%.
Source: China Fund News
Editor: Xiaoya