The Nasdaq Composite has finally joined the all-time high club, alongside the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average, after surpassing valuations set back in November 2021. The big three US indices have now established fresh record highs this year. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.14% on Friday on the back of renewed optimism in the tech sector; Dell Technologies in particular surged over 30% during the session, in its biggest daily relative gain in its history. The gains extended to the S&P 500, which rose 0.8% on Friday to fresh highs of its own, as well as to the DJI, which finished the day 0.23% in the black.
It wasn’t all good news however, shares in the New York Community Bancorp plummeted over 25% after a regulatory filing revealed “material weakness in the company’s internal controls related to internal loan review”. The lender also revised its fourth quarter losses by a factor of ten. The language used will immediately cause some to draw parallels with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last year, sparking fears of contagion in the banking sector.
Justified or not, such fears may have contributed to the surge in gold on Friday, which gained almost 2% to close out the week at $2,082 an ounce, its highest ever daily close and the most convincing move we’ve seen from the precious metal all year. Interest in gold has remained high in Asian markets since the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations, with strong buying from China in particular. Another reason for the surge may be the unexpectedly poor US manufacturing PMI which prompted a fall in the Dollar on Friday, the DXY losing a quarter of a percent on the news.
Nothing noteworthy on the economic calendar today, but looking further ahead we have a decent offering of PMI data prints on Tuesday, before a steady flow of US employment data from Wednesday onwards, culminating with NFPs on Friday. If that’s not enough we also have a two-day congressional testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell as well as the European Central Bank’s interest rate decision.
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