Another solid overall non-farm payrolls that underscored continued health in the US labour market overshadowed heightened US-China trade tensions and saw US equity markets finish the week on positive note - Dow up +136-points or +0.54% with Apple Inc (up +0.3% and consolidating its market capitalisation above >US$1 trillion) and IBM (+3.3%) The broader S&P500 +0.46%, with Consumer Staples (up +1.2%) leading ten of the eleven primary sectors higher. The technology centric NASDAQ edged +0.12% higher. China threatened to levy differentiated tariffs (ranging from 5% to 25%) on ~US$60B worth of imports from the US including aircraft, liquid natural gas and soyabean oil should the Trump administration carry out a threat they made last week to raise tariffs on Chinese goods. Separately, US sanctions are set to descend again on Iran starting today. For the week, the Dow eked out a +0.04% gain (to lock in its fifth consecutive weekly rise), while the S&P500 gained +0.76% (with Information Technology up +1.17%. Ex Apple Inc, the Information Technology sector posted a weekly decline of -0.21%, while the S&P 500's advance was pared to 0.43%) and the Nasdaq +0.96%.
