August 17, 2020

A mixed day on Wall Street Friday with the Dow ending the day gaining 34.32 points, or +0.12%, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ lost 0.58 and 23.20 points, or -0.02% and -0.21%, respectively.  For last week, however, all three U.S. stock indices were up, with the Dow gaining 1.8%, the S&P 500 gaining 0.6% and the NASDAQ up 0.1%.

Although U.S. stocks are near to reaching their highs of last February, the markets are still focused on concerns over stalled coronavirus stimulus negotiations in Washington, as well as lingering U.S.-China trade tensions.

“The S&P 500 is overbought into key resistance and up against seasonal headwinds,” said Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer.  He continued, “But should the market consolidate from here, we’ll be monitoring for an accumulation of cyclical equities to confirm what we expect to be a breakout to a new high.”

The U.S. stock markets all opened to the upside this morning, but the Dow faded into the red within about 15 minutes after the open.