Week from 18 to 24 November 2019
Overall stocks were trading modestly lower over the week. For markets that had rallied hard since early October, as evidenced by oscillators significantly above overbought thresholds, this comes as no surprise. Besides, how could it have been otherwise? Investors’ heads have been left spinning all week long after a slew of conflicting headlines related to the U.S.-China trade war.
Although both countries said talks were progressing, China condemned a U.S. Senate measure on human rights in Hong Kong, vowing to take the necessary steps to safeguard its sovereignty and security.
For the week, the S&P500 and Nasdaq Composite declined by -0.33% and -0.25% respectively. European markets moved similarly (EuroStoxx50 down -0.65%) with the exception of the FTSE100 (up +0.33%). Japan’s Nikkei225 fell -0.82% and Shanghai Composite -0.21%. Emerging markets treaded water (MSCI EM: -0.02%).
Among the S&P sectors, gains only came from financials (+0.46%), health care (+0.81%) and utilities (+0.20%). By contrast, it was a tougher week for materials (-1.69%), real estate (-1.22%), information technology (-0.83%), industrials (-0.81%), consumer discretionary (-0.80%).
Treasuries were still in demand with yields on U.S. 10-year notes dropping to 1.77% (compared with 1.84% last week). The U.S. yield curve is flattening again as the 2-year yield has risen from 1.61% to 1.63%. Europe was a copy and paste of the U.S. market (10-year Bund yield falling to -0.36% vs. -0.33% a week ago). There were no big moves in corporate bond markets, investment grade bonds inching up in the U.S. (+0.14%), inching down in Europe (-0.15%). High yield bonds were flat in Europe (+0.01%) and slightly down in the U.S. (-0.22%). Emerging debt also slipped by -0.17%.
Find the full report here: https://www.trackinsight.com/weekly-flow-report/2019-11-22/global
