Gold Prices Surge Amid Middle East Crisis

MARKET WRAP   Market Wrap: Stocks, Bonds, Commodities

On Friday, major U.S. stock indexes closed mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 39 points (+0.12%) to 33,670, while the S&P 500 fell 21 points (+0.50%) to 4,327, and the Nasdaq 100 dropped 188 points (+1.24%) to 14,995.

The U.S. University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 63.0 in October (vs 68.0 expected).

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield retreated 7.4 basis points to 4.623%.

Energy (+2.25%), health-care equipment & services (+1.58%), and insurance (+1.45%) stock sectors were top performers, while automobiles (-2.83%), semiconductors (-2.73%), and media (-1.41%) sectors came under pressure.

Once again, energy stocks were buoyed by rallying oil prices amid the escalating Israel-Hamas war. APA Corp (APA) jumped 5.18%, Marathon Oil (MRO) rose 4.74%, Devon Energy (DVN) climbed 3.64%, and Exxon Mobil (XOM) was up 3.19%.

U.S. WTI crude futures bounced $4.80 (+5.79%) to $87.68 a barrel.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) rose 1.50%, and Wells Fargo (WFC) climbed 3.07%, as both major banks in the U.S. reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Progressive (PGR) jumped 8.13%, and UnitedHealth (UNH) closed 2.64% higher, as both insurers posted strong third-quarter earnings.

Dollar General (DG) surged 9.16%, as the discount-store chain operator reappointed Todd Vasos as its chief executive officer.

Microsoft (MSFT) fell 1.04% after U.K. authorities approved the software giant's acquisition of video-game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

Other big-tech stocks were also under pressure. Nvidia (NVDA) fell 3.16%, Tesla (TSLA) dropped 2.99%, Meta Platforms (META) declined 2.92%, Amazon.com (AMZN) declined 1.92%, and Apple (APPL) was down 1.03%.

JD.com (JD) lost 2.80%, as the Chinese e-commerce firm was downgraded to “equal-weight“ at Morgan Stanley.

European stocks closed lower, with the DAX 40 falling 1.55%, the CAC 40 dropping 1.42%, and the FTSE 100 declining 0.59%.

Gold price jumped $63 to $1,932 an ounce.

Market Wrap: Forex

The U.S. dollar remained firm against most of major currencies, with the dollar index being steady at 106.66.

EUR/USD fell 19 pips to 1.0509. The Eurozone's data showed that industrial production grew 0.6% on month in August (vs +0.0% expected).

GBP/USD dropped a further 39 pips to 1.2136.

Meanwhile, USD/JPY dipped 26 pips to 149.55.

AUD/USD declined 19 pips to 0.6295.

NZD/USD sank 41 pips to 0.5885. In New Zealand, the opposition National Party has defeated the Labour Party in the country's election, and is expected to form a coalition government with its right-wing allies.

USD/CHF retreated 63 pips to 0.9021, and USD/CAD was down 27 pips to 1.3663.

Over the weekend, Bitcoin traded higher at $26,900. It is clear that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not appeal a recent court ruling that said the commission was wrong to reject Grayscale Investments' application to create a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF)