US equity markets advanced, with the S&P500 logging a fresh record closing high - Dow up +237-points or +0.69% 34,433.84 to settle within 345-points or 1% of its 7 May record closing high (34,777.76). Nike Inc soared +15.53% after the world’s largest athletic footwear and apparel seller posted better-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings per share (US$0.93c versus a loss of -US$0.51c in the year ago period and consensus analyst forecasts for US$0.51c) and revenue (US$12.34B versus US$6.31B in the year ago period and consensus US$11.03B) after the closing bell of last Thursday’s (24 June) session. The broader S&P500 added +0.33% to settle at a fresh record closing high of 4,280.70. Financials (up +1.25%) and Utilities (+1.13%) rose over >1% to lead ten of the eleven primary sectors higher. Information Technology (down -0.15%) was the only primary sector to close in the red. Big banks Morgan Stanley (up +1.52%), Citigroup Inc (+0.32%), Bank of America Corp (+1.93%), JPMorgan Chase & Co (+1.01%) and Wells Fargo (+2.66%) added between +0.3% and 2.7% after the Fed announced they have cleared latest stress test and will no longer face pandemic-era restrictions on buying back stock and paying dividends. Chinese regulators said on Saturday (26 June) Tesla Inc (down -1.17%) would ‘recall’ nearly 300,000 China-made and imported Model 3 and Model Y cars for an online software update related to assisted driving, with owners not required to return their vehicles. The Nasdaq dipped -0.06% a day after logging its 17th record close (14,369.71) of 2021. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 eked out a +0.03% rise. Friday (25 June) saw heightened trading volume as FTSE Russell was set to rebalance its U.S. stock indexes at the market close. Bank of America estimated that more than >US$170B worth of shares would be changed hands as a result of 625 changes in total to Russell indexes, including the Russell 1000 and Russell 2000.
