Trade-Sensitive Stocks Set the Tone for Short July 4th Trading Week

The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq nabbed record closes during the short holiday week

Patrick Martin

Managing Editor

Jul 5, 2019 at 3:06 PM

It was a solid week for stocks, with the Fourth of July holiday offering an abbreviated start to the new month. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq used early-week trade truce momentum to nab weekly wins, surging to record-high closes on Wednesday before the holiday break on Thursday.

Trade tensions remain a major market catalyst; even after the U.S. and China struck a trade truce, President Donald Trump kept investors on edge after threatening additional import duties against the European Union. Wall Street took a breather to close the week out though, as an encouraging jobs report doused cold water on the prospects of a 50-basis point interest rate cut.

Chip & Tech Stocks Ride Trade Tailwinds

The semiconductor sector was red-hot early in the week thanks to trade tailwinds, as Trump signaled easing restrictions on the Huawei ban. This meant frenzied options trading for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Micron (MU). And in the wider tech world, Roku (ROKU) picked up a downgrade, 3D Systems (DDD) sounded a bearish alarm, and Symantec (SYMC) soared on a possible Broadcom buyout.

Big Week For Medical Stocks

Several drug and healthcare stocks made big moves on the charts this week. Biogen (BIIB) got back some encouraging data on its spinal muscular dystrophy drug. One analysts expects political headwinds to blow over for this hospital stock, while Merck (MRK) picked up another bull note. Lastly, this cardiovascular disease specialist is toying with a key trendline.

Emerging Markets, Autos in Play

Options bulls have been targeting the emerging markets ETF on trade headlines, while surging gold prices resulted in boosted price-targets for gold stocks. And over in the auto sector, Tesla (TSLA) announced some big delivery news that had the stock popping earlier in the week, while Detroit auto stocks were in focus after a China sales update.

Fed Minutes Ahead Next Week

Next week will have a decidedly Fed-themed flavor to it, with the minutes from last month's meeting set for release, along with speeches from Chair Jerome Powell. And looking even further ahead, there's reason to believe stocks could have another big six months coming up -- with one possible catch from this rare VIX signal in the short term.

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