Sanlam Private Wealth Morning Digest Friday 20 October 2017

American Markets

Despite trading lower earlier on in the day, Wall Street erased its losses to end mostly higher, spurred on by optimism surrounding the current earnings season. The S&P 500 eked out gains to add 0.03% and close at 2,562.10 index points, helped along by a 12.2% surge in Adobe which offset a 12.1% slump in United Continental. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones erased a 104 point decline to end in positive territory and gain 0.02% to settle at 23,163.04 index points. Lastly, the NASDAQ shed 0.3%, weighed down by a 2.5% drop in Apple following speculation of poor demand and cuts in production of its iPhone 8.

Local Markets

A decline in retailers weighed on the overall market yesterday, with the JSE All Share index dropping 0.44% to close at 57,896.8 index points. This was slightly worse than a 0.43% decline in the Top 40 index. General retailers were among the worst performers, down 2.01%, with Woolworths and Mr Price slumping 3.25% and 2.16% respectively, followed by a 1.49% decline in Pick n Pay. Meanwhile, industrials also ended lower, down 0.58%, negatively affected by a 0.65% drop in British American Tobacco and a 0.46% decline in Naspers. Lastly, the gold mining index led the region’s gains, up 1.43%, boosted by a 3.17% surge in AngloGold Ashanti.