- The Dow gained another 400 points on Friday.
- After a brief break, the main index returned to its post-election gains.
- Investors are retreating from the usual tech rally into consumer goods.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) snapped a recent losing streak, extending its midweek rally into solid Friday gains. The Dow Jones index is on track to end another trading week on the strongly bullish side, up about 1.8% from Monday’s opening rates, but still slightly off last week’s record highs near 44,485.
A clear reading of data from the US Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) helped improve investor sentiment on Friday. November’s manufacturing PMI exceeded expectations, reaching 48.8 compared to October’s 48.5. The services PMI component easily exceeded forecasts at 57.0. The median market forecast predicted a more moderate raise to 55.3 from 55.0 the previous month.
Despite upbeat expectations for PMI business activity, consumer sentiment surveys raised a warning sign: the University of Michigan (UoM) consumer sentiment index for November fell to 71.8 from 73.0 the previous month, completely missing the expected raise to 73.7. Expectations for five-year standalone consumer inflation also rose in November, with surveyed consumers now expecting five-year inflation to reach 3.2%, up from an expected level of 3.1%.
Dow Jones News
The Dow is seeing a broad-based rally on Friday, with all but five of the securities in the main index testing gains on the final trading day of the week. Across the sector, telecommunications and technology companies are on the supple side, with industrials, consumer discretionary and financials ranking high.
Technology investors decided that Nvidia’s (NVDA) 93% YoY earnings growth in the third quarter wasn’t enough to keep offerings at the highest level; NVDA is down more than 3% on Friday and is trading at $142 per share. Boeing rose more than 4.5% on Friday to trade at $150 a share as investors pick the planemaker and builder amid an estimated $500 billion backlog of customer orders. The company’s ability to fulfill these orders apparently has not been factored into the equation, as at least two aircraft models are under review by the FAA. Boeing also has plans on record to lay off 17,000 workers, or ten percent of its total workforce.
Dow Jones Price Forecast
Dow Jones bulls continue to keep prices high while avoiding any significant bearish technical signals. The main equity index rose about 5.8% in November, the index’s best month to date, and was up about 18% from 2024 opening bids.
One-sided bullish price action is trending back towards the 44,400 level, with the index last priced at a supple technical low near 43,200. Short-term momentum has a challenging barrier priced at the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA) near 42,650.
