Stock Market News For Apr 10, 2018

Markets opened higher on Monday after witnessing huge selloffs last week owing to fears of a trade war with China. Tensions eased to some extent after officials from President Donald Trump’s administration said that trade disputes with China could be eased by holding talks. This saw stocks rallying almost throughout the trading session. However, stocks pared most of the day’s gains shortly before the market closed on news of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raiding the office of Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.2%, to close at 23,979.10. The S&P 500 increased 0.3% to close at 2,613.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 6,950.34, increasing 0.5%. A total of 6.28 billion shares were traded on Monday, lower than the lower than the last 20-session average of 7.3 billion shares. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.10-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.13-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.

How did the Benchmark Perform?

The Dow at its session high touched as much as 440.42 points, as trade war tensions eased, before closing the day up 46.34 points. The gains were erased on news of the FBI raiding the office of Michael Cohen. Gains for the Dow were driven by an initial rise in the shares of Boeing BA. Boeing has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The S&P 500 ended the day 8.69 points higher after most of the day’s gains were erased in the final minutes of trading. The day’s initial gains were led by the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) and Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), increasing 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, with only six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors managing to end the day higher. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq too increased only 35.23 points.

Stocks Rally as Tensions of Trade War Ease

After witnessing huge selloffs last week, markets finally rebounded on Monday after fears of a possible trade war eased to an extent. Investors’ confidence was reinstated after Trump administration officials stated that the trade conflict with China could be resolved through talks.

On April 8, Trump tweeted that despite all trade disputes, president Xi and he will remain friends and that tariffs would be reciprocal and a deal will be made between the two countries on intellectual property. Further, several Trump administration officials, notably Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, made conciliatory comments about this issue over the weekend. Such comments somewhat deflated trade fears and made investors optimistic. This saw stocks rallying for most of the day with shares of Boeing initially gaining 2.7%.

Stocks Tumble on Reports of Cohen’s Office Raid

However, the gains were erased in the final moments of trading as investors panicked on reports of FBI carrying out a raid at the office of Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. The reports saw shares tumbling once again, with shares of Boeing, which had rallied throughout the day, finally ending the session 1.1% down.

Other stocks too took a hit and the day’s gains were pared with all three indexes closing marginally higher.

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