A roundup of Friday’s stock market results from across the Americas
🌎 Argentina’s Merval closes week 6.69% higher:
The week closes with a positive balance for most Latin American stock markets. Argentina’s Merval (MERVAL) led Friday’s gains after rising 3.02% and which closes the last five days with an accumulated rise of 6.69%, according to Bloomberg data.
The Argentine market is still awaiting the results of the agreement with the IMF on the payment of the debt, after an Argentinean delegation traveled to Washington in order to continue with the negotiations. At the same time, Priscila Bruno, analyst at Rava Bursátil, notes that another driver that led the Merval to rise was the electoral dynamism implied by the PASO, after the results in Santa Fe.
Bruno commented that the biggest weekly increases in the shares listed in the Merval were those of Aluar (ALUA), which closed the week with an increase of 12.76%, and Ternium Argentina (TXAR), which ended the week with an increase of 11.89%.
Although on Friday it broke a streak of five consecutive sessions of gains and historical record levels, Santiago’s stock exchange index (IPSA) rose 2.78% in the week, the second best performer in the region.
Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) gained 1.81% Froday to 120.216,77 points, with a weekly gain of 2.13%, while Peru’s index (SPBLPGPT) has gained 1.19% over the past five days. The Colombian (COLCAP) and Mexican (MEXBOL) bourses dropped 0.04% and 0.13% respectively during the week.
🗽On Wall Street:
Technology stocks continued a selloff on Friday as investors looked to earnings in the week ahead after a disappointing batch of results earlier this week.
The Nasdaq 100 shed 0.3%, deepening losses from Thursday when technology groups fell on the backs of lower-than-expected sales at Netflix Inc. and an adjusted earnings miss at Tesla Inc.
The yield on the 10-year note fell one basis point, bringing weekly gains to less than a point. American Express Co. fell 3.5% after missing revenue forecasts. The yen tumbled on speculation the Bank of Japan won’t make changes to its yield curve control program. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. gained while Meta Platforms Inc. fell ahead of the groups’ earnings expected next week.
“Next week we may need to see strength across line items and guidance lifts to maintain index-level momentum,” Citi’s Scott T Chronert wrote in a note. “NFLX and TSLA both beat on the bottom line this week, yet fell 8.4% and 9.7%, respectively, day over day. This may be telling as to how high the bar really is to support current valuations.”
Investors had been braced for a volatile session on Friday as a flood of options expired before an out-of-cycle rebalancing in the Nasdaq 100. The index shuffle, which takes effect on Monday, is designed to reduce the dominance of megacaps and boost the presence of smaller members.
In equities, the main focus continues to be whether the rally in a handful of megacap stocks and hype over artificial intelligence has staying power. The S&P 500 has already surpassed most estimates for where it would end the year, confounding strategists convinced that 2023 would be another bad year for markets heading into recession.
“So where we are right now, we are resting after the massive move over the course of many weeks,” Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, wrote in a note. “A lot of stocks were creating and still are creating bases to break out higher from. No one could believe their eyes after being so conditioned to 2022′s nasty selling conditions when this market gained steam again.”
In commodities, wheat futures fell as much as 3.6% as Ukraine made preparations to continue a grain-export deal, which Russia exited this week. Oil notched its fourth weekly gain amid tentative signs that global markets are tightening. And gold slipped against a stronger dollar on Friday, paring gains made earlier in the week.
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%
- The euro was little changed at $1.1126
- The British pound was little changed at $1.2857
- The Japanese yen fell 1.2% to 141.76 per dollar
🍝 For the dinner table debate:
The world is turning pink: ‘Barbie,’ the movie based on the popular Mattel (MAT) doll, grossed $22.3 million in ticket sales for early theater showings, according to information from movie studio Warner Bros.
Barbie’s impressive figures include ticket sales from Thursday night’s previews and the special Barbie Blowout Party screenings held Wednesday. Outside of the US box office, the iconic doll’s film is also expected to break records.
The figure puts the film ahead of other big movies released recently, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which earned $17.5 million in May, and Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed $19.3 million and was the highest-grossing domestic release of 2022.
Paola Villar S, a content producer at Bloomberg Línea, and Jennifer Bissell-Linsk and John Viljoen of Bloomberg News, contributed to this report.
