US equity markets closed sharply higher on Friday (21 October) as investors weighed a story from the Wall Street Journal and comments from Federal Reserve officials suggesting that the central bank might shift to smaller interest-rate rises after its 1-2 November monetary policy meeting - Dow rallied -749-points or +2.47%, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc (up +4.6%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (+5.3%) notable performers. The broader S&P500 +2.37%, with Materials (up +3.46%) leading all eleven primary sectors higher, of which six logged gains of over >2.5%. Exxon Mobil Corp (up +1.30% at US$107.66) touched fresh all-time highs (US$108.04). The Nasdaq +2.31%. Twitter Inc fell -4.86% following a report that the U.S. could subject Elon Musk’s pending acquisition of the micro-blogging site to a national security review. Snap Inc tumbled -28.1% after the developer of camera and messaging app Snapchat revealed after the closing bell of last Thursday’s session (20 October) that revenue growth had slowed and losses had ballooned in the third quarter. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 +2.22%.
