US equity markets ended a strong week on a mixed note, with trading relatively subdued despite Friday’s (20 September) session being a “triple witching” event - the simultaneous expiration of stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options contracts that saw option contracts tied to more than >US$5 trillion in tradeable stocks expire - Dow edged +38-points or +0.09% higher to a fresh record closing high of 42,062.81. Nike Inc rallied +6.84% to be the leading Dow component on Friday (20 September) after announcing after the close of the previous session that chief executive John Donahoe will retire next month and will be succeeded by company veteran Elliott Hill, an abrupt leadership change punctuating a period of dour economic performance at the world’s largest sportswear maker. Initial sales data for Apple Inc’s (down -0.29%) iPhone 16 will be released tonight AEST after the new device went on sale for the first time last Friday (20 September). The technology giant's AI model, Apple Intelligence, won't be available immediately but will come later as a free software update.
