A tough finish to a tumultuous week for US markets amid a jump in volatility and heightened concerns around trade wars that left both the Dow and S&P500 nursing their steepest weekly falls in more than 2-years - Dow slumped -425-points or -1.77% (with Boeing up +0.43% and Nike Inc +0.33%) the only index constituents to gain ground) and its lowest close since November last year (and almost 5% below the level the index was trading at before Congress passed President Trump's sweeping tax overhaul in late-December last year). The broader S&P500 -2.10% (to 2,588.26) to settle just 0.28% above its 8 February closing low and just above its 200-day moving average (of 2,585.38) - and ~9% below its peak in late-January. Financials (down -2.99%) were the worst performer of the S&P500's 11 primary sectors, which all closed in the red. The technology-centric NASDAQ -2.43% to cap its worst weekly performance since August 2015. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) FANG Index - which includes 10 highly liquid technology and internet/media companies including Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google-parent Alphabet Alibaba, Twitter and Tesla - now sits 10% below its all-time high reached earlier this year. In stock-specific moves, cloud computing company Dropbox debuted on the NYSE with a +36% rally and leaving the company with a valuation of US$11.03B. President Trump also signed Congress' $1.3 trillion spending bill that would keep the government open until September. President Trump's appointment of John Bolton as the new White House national security adviser, replacing H.R. McMaster, was also a talking point. Mr Bolton is known as a "hawk's hawk", with hardline views on Iran and North Korea. For the week, the Dow sank -5.67%, S&P500 -5.95% (its third >5% weekly fall in two-months - prior to that, the last time the S&P500 logged a weekly decline of >5% was in June 2016 post the Brexit referendum) and Nasdaq -6.54%. The tale of the tape calendar year-to-date now reads Dow down -4.2% and S&P500 -2.5, while the Nasdaq is up +2%.
