US equity markets mixed on Friday night (12 March) to conclude a strong week as Treasury yields climbed and prompted investors to once again chase value stocks at the expense of growth stocks – Dow gained +293-points or +0.90% to notch its fifth consecutive record closing high of 32,778.64. Boeing Co rallied +6.82% following a Reuters report that the company had received an order from a private investment firm 777 Partners to buy 24 737 MAX airplanes with an option to purchase a further 60. Other notable index performers included Caterpillar Inc (up 4.2%) and investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc (+2%) and JPMorgan Inc (+1.2%). The broader edged S&P500 +0.10% higher, recovering earlier losses to also eke out a fresh record closing high of 3,943.34. Real Estate (up +1.50%), Industrials (+1.34%), Utilities (+1.28%) and Financials (+1.09%) all advanced over >1%. Communication Services (down -0.90%) and Information Technology (-0.71%) were the only sectors to close in the red. The Nasdaq lost -0.59% after rebounding over >6% over the preceding three sessions. China’s market regulator said Friday (12 March) it had imposed fines on twelve companies, including WeChat owner Tencent Holdings Ltd (down -7.52%), search engine Baidu Inc (-2.98%), ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and Japan’s SoftBank Corp. Separately, the US listed shares of China-based JD.com Inc slid -6.65% after three sources said it is in talks to buy part or all of a stake in brokerage Sinolink Securities worth at least US$1.5B. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 index advanced +0.61% to a record closing high of 2,352.79. Novavax Inc jumped +8.07% after the company said its COVID-19 vaccine was 96% effective in a Phase 3 trial.
