US equity markets concluded a strong week on a weaker note albeit each of the benchmark indices recovered from their session lows. Among the reason cited for Friday's weakness were fresh falls on oil markets, a stronger-than-expected reading for US producer price inflation, fresh trade concerns and weak China data - Dow down 202-points or -0.77%, paring an earlier -308-point decline. General Electric Co fell -5.71% to close at its lowest level since March 2009 (at US$8.58 per share) following a downgrade from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Trade-sensitive stocks such as Caterpillar Inc (down -3.41%) and Deere and Co (-1.27%) slid as President Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro criticised Wall Street executives and that any new trade agreement between the United States and China will be on President Trump’s terms, not Wall Street’s (“If Wall Street is involved and continues to insinuate itself into these negotiations, there will be a stench around any deal that’s consummated because it will have the imprimatur of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street."). The broader S&P500 fell -0.92% (off a session low that saw the index down as much as -1.5%), with Information Technology (down -1.66%) and Consumer Discretionary (-1.50%) leading eight of the eleven primary sectors into the red. The NASDAQ lost -1.65% (having dropped as much as -2.4% intra-day), with heavyweights Facebook Inc (down -1.97%), Amazon.com Inc (-2.42%), Netflix Inc (-4.55%) and Alphabet Inc (-1.50%) all trading lower. For the week, the Dow gained +2.8% (its best weekly performance since the week ended 9 March, when the index advanced +3.25%), S&P500 +2.1%, Nasdaq +0.70%.
