Friday July 15th

Stocks jumped on Friday as traders digested a fresh batch of bank earnings and retail sales for June that came in ahead of expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 369 points, or 1.22%. The S&P 500 jumped 1.11% and Nasdaq Composite added 1.12%, but stocks remained on track for weekly losses. A new round of bank results from Wells Fargo and Citigroup offered further insight into the state of the economy. Wells Fargo rose 2.8% even as quarterly profits declined 48% and the bank set aside funds for bad loans. Citigroup jumped 5.2% as it beat estimates and benefited from a rising rate environment. A day earlier, investors combed through troubling reports from JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, which kicked off major bank earnings, and also weighed the likelihood of larger interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and looming recession concerns. “I don’t have a lot of bullishness on our ability to grow earnings in this environment,” G Squared Private Wealth CIO Victoria Greene said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “I don’t think it was bad or tragic, you know, but I think unfortunately, this earnings season, any miss on earnings or margins is going to be punished and any actual beats may actually be picked apart.” Shares of UnitedHealth, American Express and Salesforce led the Dow’s recovery, rising more than 2% each. All major sectors in the S&P 500 moved higher on the day with the exception of utilities, which slipped 1%. Financials jumped more than 1%, boosted by bank shares. Shares of Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet and Meta Platforms gained more than 1% while Amazon jumped 2.4%. Norwegian and Carnival rose 1%. For the week, the Dow is down 1.3%, while the S&P and Nasdaq have slipped 2.1% and 2.9%, respectively. June retail sales came in ahead of expectations on Friday, rising 1% on a monthly basis and ahead of Dow Jones’ estimate of 0.9% and indicating that consumers are bolstering retail spending even as inflation hits record highs. In corporate news, Pinterest shares surged 14.7% following a Wall Street Journal report that said activist investor Elliott Management took a stake of more than 9% in the social media company. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 2% as tech stocks declined, and mainland China markets dropped more than 1% after the country’s GDP missed expectations. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong declined 2.19% to close at 20,297.72, and the Hong Kong Tech index slipped 3.22%. Mainland China markets dropped. The Shanghai Composite was down 1.64% to close at 3,228.06, while the Shenzhen Component declined 1.52% to 12,411. South Korea’s Kospi struggled for direction and closed 0.37% higher at 2,330.98, while the Kosdaq lost 0.48% to 762.39. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.54% higher at 26,788.47, while the Topix index closed slightly lower at 1,892.5. Oil prices rose on Friday amid prospects of a less aggressive U.S. rate hike, although worries about a recovery in demand capped gains. Brent crude futures for September delivery added 2.3% to trade at $101.37 per barrel, while WTI crude rose 1.9% to $97.61. Gold prices eased on Friday and were poised for a fifth straight weekly loss, as expectations of a sizeable rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve powered the dollar and eroded bullion’s appeal. Spot gold firmed to $1,708.24 per ounce by 9:23 a.m. ET, but has lost about 2% so far this week. U.S. gold futures also eased 0.01% to $1,705.7. The dollar held at a two-decade high, making bullion more expensive for overseas investors. Gold looks to be in a free fall, and typically buyers will restrain themselves until the price finds some decent support, said independent analyst Ross Norman.