July 20, 2020

Good morning,

Friday’s performance in the U.S. equity markets was mixed, as was the performance for last week.  The Dow, which spent most of Friday in the red, finished the day down 62.75 points, or 0.23%.  For the week, the Dow was the winner gaining 2.3%.  On Friday, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both were in the green, gaining 9.16 and 29.39 points, respectively.  On the week, the S&P 500 gained 1.3%, while major technology stocks, such as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix, remained under pressure, pushing the NASDAQ down 1.2% for its first weekly loss in three weeks.

The weekly gains for the Dow and DS&P 500 came when investors focused on more beaten-up value stocks and away from the technology which has been stalwarts of the U.S. equity markets in 2020.  “All the talk about a rotation out of technology and more “value” oriented areas, will grow in coming weeks,” said Douglas Busch, founder of ChartSmarter.  “If the (tech) sector can just take a rest and keep in the middle pack akin to a smart jockey that has a lot of horse under him in a thoroughbred race, then it will likely see a surge again into the fall,” he added.

The markets remain fully focused on the development of therapeutics and a vaccine for the coronavirus.  One of the newest on the scene is British pharmaceutical company, Synairgen, has claimed its new respiratory coronavirus treatment has reduced the number of hospitalizations of COVID-infected patients.

In the moments before the start of trading today, futures of all three major equity indices are only slightly higher, reflecting a rather flat start to the markets.