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Wall Street closed in record territory on Friday as the big banks had a very strong start to the third-quarter earnings season. The Dow Jones added 0.97% to a fresh record 42,863.86 on Friday while the S&P500 gained 0.65% to a fresh record 5815.03 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.33%, just 2% below its record high.
JP Morgan Chase rose 4.4% after topping profit and revenue expectations for Q3 while Wells Fargo rose 5.6% on stronger-than-expected profits.
Over in Europe markets closed higher on Friday as investors assessed key UK growth figures and looked ahead to further key economic data out in the region soon. The STOXX 600 rose 0.53%, Germany’s DAX added 0.85%, the French CAC rose 0.48%, and, in the UK, the FTSE100 ended the day up 0.19%. The UK economy returned to GDP expansion in August with Britain’s GDP rising 0.2% in the month following flat readings in June and July.
Across the Asia region on Friday it was a mixed close as China’s stimulus-fuelled rally lost steam. China’s CSI index lost 2.77%, South Korea’s Kospi Index fell slightly despite the Bank of Korea cutting the benchmark interest rate by 25-basis points in the first rate cut since 2020. Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.57% on Friday and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was close for a public holiday.
The ASX closed 0.1% lower on Friday as a broad sell off across 6 of the 11 sectors weighed on the key index.
Energy stocks rose on Friday on the oil price rebound – which has been the story of the last month with high volatility based on geopolitical tensions escalating and easing.
Capital raisings have been on the rise recently as the impacts of high interest rates and subdued demand finally hit company balance sheets. On Friday we saw Appen return to profitability but also announce a capital raise to expand into AI, while Dubber also announced a $25m capital raise to ‘accelerate sales momentum and execute a new sales strategy’.
Gold miners rallied on Friday due to the rising price of the precious commodity as demand for the safe-haven asset continues to rise.
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