The S&P 500 staged a rebound effort this week, tallying a 2.4% weekly gain. The continued expectation that the market was due for a bounce-back after last month's sell-off, compounded with mostly upbeat earnings and easing trade tensions underpinned the rally.
As for the other major averages, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.4%, the tech-sensitive Nasdaq Composite gained 2.7%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 gained 4.3%.
Cyclical sectors were largely the best-performing groups this week, with the lightly-weighted materials sector (+6.1%) and the heavily-weighted financials (+4.4%) sectors leading the advance. The consumer discretionary sector (+4.0%) also had a notable gain. On the downside, utilities was the only group to settle in the red, losing 0.6%.
U.S.-China trade tensions eased this week, with U.S. President Trump saying that he had a "long and very good conversation" with China's President Xi, adding that the two leaders will be getting together at the upcoming G-20 summit in Argentina. There were some conflicting reports as to whether Mr. Trump has asked his cabinet to begin drafting a trade deal, but the president did say he thinks a deal will eventually be reached.
On the earnings front, Facebook's (FB) third quarter report was "good enough" to temper negativity surrounding the stock, helping to ease growth-related worries. Apple (AAPL), on the other hand, raised some red flags after forecasting softer-than-expected revenue guidance for the holiday quarter and announcing that it will no longer provide unit-sales data for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Other notable companies to report earnings this week included Pfizer (PFE), Coca-Cola (KO), Chevron (CVX), Exxon Mobil (XOM), General Motors (GM), eBay (EBAY), T-Mobile US (TMUS), DowDuPont (DWDP), and Starbucks (SBUX), all of which beat estimates. Conversely, results from General Electric (GE), Kellogg (K), Spotify (SPOT), and Wayfair (W) came in below consensus.
In M&A news, IBM (IBM) acquired Red Hat (RHT) over the weekend for an all-cash offer of $190 per share; that represents a 63% premium over Red Hat's October 26 closing price.
Highlighting this week's batch of economic data was the Employment Situation report for October. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 250,000, higher than the Briefing.com consensus of 190,000, while average hourly earnings increased 0.2% as expected. The unemployment rate remained at a nearly 50-year low of 3.7%. The key takeaway from the report is that it is consistent with labor market trends that will keep the Federal Reserve on a tightening path. The U.S. Federal Reserve will be meeting next week, but no rate hike is expected until December.
Overseas, European and Asian stocks rose with Wall Street this week. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she won't be seeking re-election as head of the CDU, following disappointing results for her party in a regional election. Her plan, however, is to remain Chancellor until 2021. Meanwhile, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan released their latest policy decisions, keeping interest rates unchanged.