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Top 5 Things That Moved Markets This Past Week

U.S. Markets Finished a Holiday-Shortened Week Mostly Higher
U.S. Markets Finished a Holiday-Shortened Week Mostly Higher

Investing.com – Top 5 things that rocked U.S. markets this week:

1. Tech Stocks Win the 4-Day Week

U.S. stocks finished the week mostly higher, thanks mainly to buyers coming in on a low-volume Friday.

The S&P 500 finished the week up about 1.5% and the Dow ended about 0.8% higher for the week. The big winner was the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite, which closed up about 2.4% for the week.

2. Jobs Gain With Wage Growth in Check

The economic calendar was dominated by Friday’s employment report, which showed still-solid growth in payrolls, but lower-than-expected wages, which eased inflation concerns.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 213,000 in June. That was higher than the consensus estimate of 200,000. The jobless rate unexpectedly rose to 4.0% from 3.8%, missing consensus expectations for it to remain unchanged as more people entered the labor force.

Average hourly earnings advanced 0.2% month-on-month in June, below expectations for it to repeat a 0.3% gain.

The data did little to dissuade investors that the Federal Reserve will waver from its plan to gradually raise interest rates. The markets are still pricing in two more rate hikes this year, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor.

3. U.S, China Trade Battle Officially Underway

After all the pre-bout hype, the bell finally rang on the U.S-China trade fight Friday, guaranteeing the week’s trade tensions ended on a nervous note.

There was no last-minute change of plan as the U.S. put tariffs in place on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods at 12:01 AM ET (04:01 GMT). The Chinese hit right back with tariffs on $34 billion on U.S. goods going into effect.

China said the U.S. had “launched the largest trade war in economic history to date.”

And the U.S. administration is already looking at ramping up the amount of tariffed goods.

“You have another 16 (billion dollars) in two weeks, and then, as you know, we have $200 billion in abeyance and then after the $200 billion, we have $300 billion in abeyance. Ok? So we have 50 plus 200 plus almost 300,” President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, according to Reuters.

This erased a lot of the good feeling after a U.S. official said the country would be willing to drop threats of tariffs on EU autos if the bloc would drop its duties on U.S. vehicles.

4. Greenback Struggles as Euro Bounces Back

The U.S. dollar endured a tough week that was not helped by the mixed jobs numbers that offered little encouragement for traders looking for faster Fed hikes.
The dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of six currencies, was down about 0.7% for the week.

The dollar also faced pressure from the euro during the week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel resolved an immigration battle and with her interior minister that had threatened the future of her coalition government.

Signs that auto trade tariff battles with the U.S weren’t a fait accompli and strong German factory orders also helped the single currency.

The dollar index fell around 0.5% on Friday.

5. Elon Musk Controversy Overshadows Tesla Production

In a holiday-shortened week, with many investors taking a summer break, there was little company news to move the markets. But one of Wall Street’s most-discussed companies stayed in the spotlight.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) started the week on what should have been an encouraging note. It announced it had hit its target production pace of 5,000 Model 3s per week, just shortly after its June 30 deadline. Tesla also reported a 55% increase in production during the second quarter.

But after a sharp before-hours spike Monday, the shares ended the day lower as sellers took control.

And focus later turned from company performance to allegations by CEO Elon Musk of journalistic misconduct. Musk questioned on Twitter whether Business Insider journalist Linette Lopez was colluding with short seller Jim Chanos and bribing a Tesla employee.

Shares of Tesla ended down 10% for the week.

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