The Dow Jones Industrial Average index pared some of its gains on Friday. The US blue-chip stock index composed of 30 of the biggest companies listed on US stock exchanges, closed 112.6 points or 0.40% lower at 28,051.4.
Losses were led by Dow Chemical with a 1.68% loss, followed by Home Depot which was down 1.12%. In third was Walgreen being 0.85% in the red.
On the other hand, only 7 stocks finished in the green. They were: IBM (+0.51%), Wal-mart (+0.28%), Proctor & Gamble (0.25%), Verizon (+0.23%), Cisco (+0.15%), Visa (+0.08%), and Disney (+0.07%).
It was a quiet day for trading as it followed Thanksgiving Day in the US. The lack of news encouraged investors to take profit ahead of a much-anticipated announcement from China. If you remember, last week US President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act into law. This has been previously condemned by China and they have warned to retaliate if the US keeps on meddling with its affairs. There have been no official statement from Beijing yet as to how they will react. However, most participants expect one soon.
Aside from market sentiment, the Dow Jones will likely be affected by data coming out of the US today. At 2:45 pm GMT, the final manufacturing PMI for October is seen at 52.2. Then at 3:00 pm GMT, the ISM manufacturing PMI for November is seen to print at 49.2. Readings below 50.0 are considered as leading indicators of contraction. Therefore, a figure higher than forecast could be bullish for the Dow Jones.
Alongside it, construction spending is seen to post a 0.3% uptick for the month of October. Meanwhile, ISM manufacturing prices is eyed at 47.0 for the month.
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Dow Jones Outlook
While the Dow Jones did not end on a strong note, it did score a 3.7% gain for the month. This is its biggest monthly gain since November. Profit-taking, risk aversion, or disappointing US data could push the Dow Jones lower to support at the rising trend line (connecting the lows of October 3, October 23, November 1, and November 21) around 27,982.5.
On the other hand, if there are enough buyers in today’s market, we could see the stock index rally to set new historic highs beyond 28,196.6.Download our latest quarterly market outlook for our longer-term trade ideas.
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