Morgans AM: Tuesday, 17 August 2021

Morgans Financial Limited

Both the Dow and S&P500 recovered from early losses to record fresh record closing highs for a fifth consecutive session despite some soft economic data from China and with the fallout in Afghanistan also tempering sentiment - Dow up +110-points or +0.31% to 35,625.40 and logging its fifth straight record close to match the longest such run of all-time highs ended 8 November, 2017. The broader S&P500 added +0.26% to 4,479.71, recovering from an earlier decline of as much as -0.7% to stage its biggest intra-session comeback since 25 March. The S&P 500 has now doubled its level from its pandemic-low close on 23 March, marking the fastest bull-market doubling off a bottom since World War II, according to CNBC analysis. The S&P 500 has closed at a record high 49 times this year out of 156 trading days, or 31% of the time - the most frequent closing highs on record back to 1950. It was the more defensive sectors that led gains overnight for a second straight session, with Health Care (up +1.13%), Utilities (+0.65%) and Consumer Staples (+0.63%). Energy (down -1.83%) was the worst performing primary sector for a second consecutive session. Tesla Inc fell -4.32% after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a formal probe into the electric vehicle maker’s Autopilot partially automated driving system. T-Mobile US Inc fell -2.9% telecommunications company confirmed that there was unauthorized access to T-Mobile data, but they “have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved.” The last time the Dow and S&P 500 set five consecutive closing records together was a five-day stretch that ended 20 October, 2017. The Nasdaq slipped -0.20%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 fell -0.89%.