The markets closed mixed on Friday as the DOW fell due to performances from Intel and American Express. Both the DOW and S&P 500 snapped three-week winnings streaks as investors worried over continued stalled stimulus talks and reactions from the final presidential debate. The Final Round panel discusses the latest.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to “The Final Round” here on Yahoo Finance. We have just a few seconds left in the trading week and the a– major averages are mixed. We have the S&P and NASDAQ holding onto gains today. The Dow under pressure. A lot of that has to do with what we’re seeing from Intel and also American Express. Those two stocks are the worst performers in the Dow today. The–
[BELL RINGING] [SCATTERED APPLAUSE]And that does it for the trading day and for the week. And taking a look at where we stand– so we’re seeing a mixed picture today with the Dow or with– excuse me, with the S&P and the NASDAQ holding onto gains. But for the week, all three of the major averages ending in the red. We have the Dow and the S&P snapping a three-week winning streak, with the NASDAQ having its first down week in the last five a week. So the NASDAQ also closing in the red.
And taking a look at some of the big movers, I mentioned Intel and American Express. Those stocks under a significant amount of pressure, the worst performers in the Dow today. Intel off just over 10%. American Express off just over $3.5. Both of those stocks being weighed down after reporting earnings. We had Intel after the bell yesterday. Expectations– or the results came in basically in line with expectations, a little bit better, but it was that data center business that really weighed on the stock today. Some concerns there.
And then American Express, some weakness in consumer spending. Of course, that is weighing on shares today. Taking a look at some of the other big drivers in the market aside from earnings, stimulus talks, of course, continue to be front and center, although negotiations between the White House and the Democrats over another relief package seems to be falling apart. Or, at least, we’re not any closer, it seems like, at this point than we were at this time yesterday.
So the two sides still pretty far apart on certain aspects of the deal. And then coronavirus, the case count there showing some signs for concern. We had a huge surge in the daily case count there. So, of course, that is weighing on investor sentiment today. Taking a look at the sector action today– outperformers, communications services, consumer discretionary, and real estate– there’s really only two big laggards in the se– in– sector-wise today in the market.
Technology and energy– those two sectors are really the underperformers. I want to bring in my co-host, Myles Udland. He’s still with us, around for the next 60 minutes. We also have Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman, Akiko Fujita, and Jared Blikre here to break down the action that we saw today. Myles, let me just kick it over to you first because a mixed picture, like I said, for today. But the Dow, the main reason that– why we’re seeing some losses there is because of what we saw from Intel and also American Express.
MYLES UDLAND: Yeah. I mean, I think the Intel story, you know, as Jared outlined for us in the last hour is– is a very interesting kind of micro, macro story in itself, if that makes sense. It’s a macro story for what’s happening in the chip space. Obviously, it’s micro because it’s just a couple of individual names. But I think looking at the market more broadly, especially ahead of what we’re going to get next week, there’s a few dynamics that are– that are quite interesting.
The first and, I think, most notable to me is how stocks are reacting to earnings. We were seeing investors, you know, not all that excited about results that beat expectations, because expectations have been so high. Investors are quick to punish stocks that–that miss earnings estimates. And then coming up next, week, we have pretty much all of the big guys. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet all reporting their results. This coming as we get that massive GDP report right before the election.
And then, I mean, we’re right there, right? We’ve got seven or six full trading days before we get to Election Day. I guess trading on election day would be considered pre-election trading, because we don’t know who won yet. But, I mean, this– it’s– it– this is it, right? We’ve been talking for four years about the 2020 election, and we have a mere seven trading sessions before we get there.
And I know that, you know, Jared was outlining some of the technical picture for us in the last segment. But it would seem unlikely that there’s going to be a major move in the equity market before we get through Tuesday night and maybe even then, if there’s not a resolution on Tuesday evening or November 3, Tuesday evening. Because it’s going to be hard to have tons of conviction or to build lots of momentum one way or another with this event not just outstanding, but finally kind of in our focus, we don’t have to say what’s going to happen around the election.
The election, of course, is pretty much here. And it’s really begun, right? Millions, tens of millions of people have already voted. So I guess it’s not even appropriate to say we’re waiting for it. We are currently in it.
