Despite risk aversion looming over yesterday’s trading, the Dow still managed to reach new record highs. The index reached 27,806.80 before it closed with a gain of 92.10 points at 27,783.59, up 0.33% from where it opened.
The lack of clarity surrounding the US-China trade deal continued to make investors jittery. There were comments from White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Tuesday that they still did not have a deal with China. This may have caused the Dow to open lower at 27,619.70 from Tuesday’s close.
However, shares of mass media and entertainment conglomerate, Disney, rallied mid-day and helped push the Dow to new highs. The stock hit also hit historic highs when it soared 7.3% to 148.72. This came at the wake of their announcement that Disney+ has already over 10 million subscribers. The company’s streaming platform was only launched a day before on November 12.
We could see a slow start for the equities markets today given that data from China earlier printed worse than expected. Industrial production for October printed at 4.7% and missed forecasts for a 5.5% growth rate. Retail sales also disappointed at 7.2% versus the 7.8% consensus. Fixed asset investment grew by 5.2% from a year ago which was less than the 5.4% forecast.
These disappointing figures could weigh down sentiment at the start of trading as it confirms fears that the ongoing trade war is adversely affecting the world’s second-largest economy.
We could see a re-test of yesterday’s New York session lows around 27,592.30 if risk aversion dominates market sentiment. On the other hand, another stock rally could help push the index to new highs again.Download our latest quarterly market outlook for our longer-term trade ideas.