U.S. markets and stock ETFs wobbled between gains and losses on Friday as a limited trade deal between the United States and China kept equities barely afloat.
On Friday, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ) was up 0.4%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEArca: DIA) was flat and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) gained 0.1%.
The equity market paused its record setting rally on Friday as the initial euphoria over a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies waned and traders waited on further details over an accord, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It’s a classic case of sell-the-news,” R.J. Grant, director of equity trading at KBW, told the WSJ, adding that parts of the deal remain ambiguous.
“The broadest takeaway is that this clearly represents a positive step forward and there is no longer an escalation in the process,” Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, told Reuters. “But we are still in a scenario where the underlying details are yet to be revealed and until there is ink to paper, there will be some degree of uncertainty.”
Boris Johnson’s Victory
Overseas markets, on the other hand, strengthened after a victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party and for proponents seeking to resolve the protracted Brexit divorce from the European Union.
“The geopolitical risks thought to be strangling world economic growth, incredibly, just in the last 24 hours, seem to be closer to getting resolved in a big, big way,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG, told the WSJ. “The outlook in 2020 looks better than it has in months.”
Furthermore, Johnson promised to deliver billions of pounds in public spending to support the working-class voters whom suffered from the financial crisis.
“These results really make the U.K. equity markets investible again,” Sue Noffke, head of U.K. equities at Schroders, told the WSJ. “Greater political clarity and less uncertainty really does reduce the level of risk for investors. In particular, international investors.”
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