Winthrop Partners Weekly Market Update 8-19-19

Volatility is the best term to describe stocks last week. Despite a Friday surge, each of the benchmark indexes listed here fell for the third consecutive week. Wednesday proved to be the most tumultuous day, as stocks suffered a major pullback. Long-term bond yields plunged below that of the two-year note. This “inversion” has historical precedence as a warning of an impending recession. That, coupled with ramped-up trade war rhetoric between the United States and China, pushed stocks lower during the week. Year-to-date, the major indexes listed here continue to run ahead of their 2018 year-end closing values, but the margin is narrowing. Still, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is almost 20% ahead of last year’s closing value, followed by the S&P 500, the Dow, the Russell 2000, and the Global Dow, which is still over 6.50% ahead of last year’s closing pace.

Oil prices crept ahead last week, closing at $54.94 per barrel by late Friday afternoon, up from the prior week’s price of $54.27. The price of gold (COMEX) advanced again last week, closing at $1,523.60 by late Friday afternoon, up from the prior week’s price of $1,509.10. The national average retail regular gasoline price was $2.624 per gallon on August 12, 2019, $0.064 lower than the prior week’s price and $0.219 less than a year ago.  Click here to read more:Winthrop Partners Weekly Update 8-19-19