Possibly the biggest news story of the week, maybe even the year: McDonald’s announced they are adding bakery items to their menu — and the best part is they’re available all day! Next time you’re at McDonald’s at 2 AM, I’d recommend trying the apple fritter.
This week the S&P 500 closed at 3,477.13, a gain of 3.84%, the NASDAQ finished at 11,579.94, a gain of 4.56%, and the Dow ended at 28,586.90, a gain of 3.27%.
Summary
The market seemed to shake off its September struggle, as the major indexes were up big this week. Politics dominated the market news this week, as President Trump returned to the White House after his positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Democrats and Republicans are still discussing a second stimulus package but appear too far off to come to a deal anytime soon. And quarterly earnings pick back up next week, starting with an abundance of banks.
Worth Mentioning
- IBM announced they plan to sell off their service business to focus more on faster-growing businesses like cloud computing and artificial intelligence
- Apple announced it will reveal its new iPhones at a product launch event on October 13th, the same day as Amazon prime day
- After a long investigation, some members of the House of Representatives concluded Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet, and Apple enjoy monopoly power and may need to be broken up
- Initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 840,000 this past week
- Chipmaker AMD is rumored to be in talks to buy one of its competitors, Xilinx
- Domino’s Pizza’s stock took a tumble after reporting lower EPS than expected during their earnings call
Looking Ahead to Next Week
- Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September is released Tuesday
- Vice President Pence and Senator Harris debated Wednesday night. President Trump and former Vice President Biden are scheduled to debate on October 15th and 22nd, though format and whether the debates will actually happen remains up in the air
- Several big names, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines and Citigroup, are scheduled to report earnings on Tuesday
- Several large financial companies report earnings next week, including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, PNC Bank, and Wells Fargo among others
- Stimulus talks will continue in D.C. but there is no timetable for a deal
- Monday is Columbus Day — the stock market is open, but the bond market is closed
Weekly Change In Each Sector:
| Price, 10/02 | Price, 10/09 | Change | |
| XLC — Communications Service | $59.06 | $60.33 | 2.15% |
| XLY — Consumer Discretionary | $148.27 | $153.39 | 3.45% |
| XLP — Consumer Staples | $64.10 | $65.74 | 2.56% |
| XLE — Energy | $29.31 | $30.79 | 5.05% |
| XLF — Financials | $24.30 | $25.23 | 3.83% |
| XLV — Health Care | $104.16 | $108.36 | 4.03% |
| XLI — Industrials | $77.61 | $80.71 | 3.99% |
| XLK — Information Technology | $114.94 | $120.18 | 4.56% |
| XLB — Materials | $63.30 | $66.51 | 5.07% |
| XLRE — Real Estate | $36.43 | $36.93 | 1.37% |
| XLU — Utilities | $60.69 | $63.48 | 4.60% |
Treasury Yield Rates
The 10-Year ended the week at 0.79%, compared to last week’s end of 0.70%
The 2-Year ended the week at 0.16%, compared to last week’s end of 0.13%