Stocks and commodities were the big losers last Friday (15 June) following a fresh escalation in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing albeit the benchmark US equity indices closed well off their session lows - Dow down -85-points or -0.34% , with Caterpillar Inc (down 2.04%) the worst performing index constituent. General Electric Co fell -1.5% and a near 2-month low after ratings agency Fitch downgraded the industrial conglomerate's credit rating one notch to A, and warned that further downgrades may be coming. The broader S&P500 dipped -0.10%, with energy (down -2.1% and its worst single day performance since 25 May) the worst performing primary sector followed by basic materials (-0.66%) and technology (-0.4%). Investors turned to defensive sectors, with telecommunications (up +1.2%), consumer staples (+1.3%)and utilities (+0.7%).
