Morgans AM: Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets advanced as major companies continued to deliver solid third quarter earnings - Dow up +199-points or +0.56% . Walmart Inc gained +2.1% after Goldman Sachs added the big-box retailer to its conviction buy list, pointing to improved profitability and increased share of the U.S. grocery market saying the stock could rally nearly 40%. The broader S&P500 extended its rally into a fifth straight session and climbed back above >4,500, rising +0.74% to 4,519.63. Health Care (up +1.31%), Utilities (+1.26%) and Energy (+1.11%) all rose over >1% to lead ten of the eleven primary sectors higher. Consumer Discretionary (down -0.29%) was the only primary sector to close in the red. The technology-centric Nasdaq rose +0.71%. Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd popped +6.1% after the company announced it has developed a custom computer chip that it will use to power its data centre servers. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 added +0.36%.