U.S. markets continue to rise as major companies are releasing promising Q3 financial results and investors continue to remain hopefully that positive trade interactions will develop between the economic giants that are China and the U.S.
Here's how the U.S. stock market closed Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.99 or 29.50 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): +0.895 or 237.91 points
NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ): +1.24% or 100.06 points
As more information surrounding the contents of the "Phase One" U.S.-China trade deal begin to surface, the future of trade between the two financial warheads is still unclear. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that China may need to remove retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products in order to meet the country's previous agreement to purchase $50 billion of U.S. agricultural exports. The report goes on to lament that for China to do that there would be a requirement for the Trump administration to also reduce tariffs, which is a move that the administration has not hinted it will do.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released disconcerting information Tuesday that the trade war will cut 2019 global economic growth to its slowest pace since the financial crisis of 2008. IMF said its latest World Economic Outlook projections show 2019 GDP growth to be just at 3.0%, which is down from the 3.2% forecasted in July. IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath stated that "the weakness in growth is driven by a sharp deterioration in manufacturing activity and global trade, with higher tariffs and prolonged trade policy uncertainty damaging investment and demand for capital goods."
In other Trump administration news, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has authorized sanctions and increased steel tariffs on Turkey to 50%. This is in response to the country's military offensive in northern Syria.
In stock sector news, following many positive Q3 earnings reports and companies beating expectations, most sectors rose today during trading. The biggest gainers were Health Care +1.77%, Communication Services +1.62%, Financials +1.33%, Information Technology +1.10%, and Consumer Discretionary +0.96%. The losers were Consumer Staples -0.30%, and Utilities -0.40%.
Real Estate took a dive Tuesday after the U.S. housing inventory fell 2.5% year-over-year in September, which is a sharper decline than August's 1.8% decline. Supply is now expected to decline in the months ahead, a warning sign of a housing storage. Chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, Robert Dietz, stated that "it's not just the overall supply of new construction that's gone down, but the supply of starter homes, so it's the affordability challenge at the entry level."
In commodity news, West Texas Intermediate continues to be on the decline, with barrel prices dropping almost 1% and pricing around $53. Brent Crude took a similar decrease, with barrel prices slipping about 0.50% and price per barrel just under $59. Gold also took a hit today, with prices lowering 0.87%, making the price per ounce $1,484.60.
October is proving to be a whirlwind of a month with the stock market fluctuating almost daily depending on the geopolitical news of the day. As the market enters the second half of the month, uncertainty is surely to arise following developing Brexit reports and the unrelenting trade war discussions.