Barron's - USA (2021-11-22)

November 22, 2021 BARRON’S 35

MARKET WEEK

November 15 through November 19, 2021

Euro Trader P.38

Emerging Markets P.38

Striking Price P. 39

Commodities P.40

Inside Scoop P.41

13D Filings P.41

Power Play P. 41

Charting the Market P. 43

Winners & Losers P.44

Research Reports P.45

Market View P. 46

Statistics P. 47

35,601.98

52-wk:+21.66%YTD:+16.32%Wkly:-1.38%

Dow Jones Industrials

4697.96

S&P 500

52-wk:+32.06%YTD:+25.08%Wkly:+0.32%

16,057.44

Nasdaq Composite

52-wk:+35.45%YTD:+24.59%Wkly:+1.24%

$101.05

SPDR S&P Retail ETF

52-wk:+75.34%YTD:+57.11%Wkly:-1.38%

2.0%

-1.5

-2.0

0

-1.0

-0.5

1.0

0.5

1.5

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Close

Source: Barron’s Statistics

Friday

MARKET PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD

More New Records

Macy’s rocketed up more than 21% on Thursday—and

Nvidia gained 8.2%—as the S&P 500 rose 0.34% and the

Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.45%, both notching record closes.

Covid Comes Back

Tech stocks popped on Friday, while the Dow fell 0.7% and bond

yieldsdipped.NewCovid-19restrictionsinEuropecastshadows.

Catalyst Shopping

After earnings season,

investors tried to figure out what

to focus on next. The S&P 500

was down fractionally on

Monday, and the Dow and

Nasdaq were equally unmoved.

A Retail Surge

Retail sales in October rose 1.7%

from the previous month, the

biggest advance since March.

TheSPDRS&PRetailexchange-

traded fund gained 1.1% on

Tuesday.

THE TRADER

Despite

Inflation,

Earnings

Are a Balm

Fo r S to c k s

T

he broad U.S. stock

market eked out a

gain this past week,

propelled by strong

retail earnings and

more outperfor-

mance by tech

shares. Inflation looms, but has shown

little sign of hurting results so far, and

investors keep reaping the rewards.

That said, the major indexes were

mixed on the week. The S&P 500 rose

0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Aver-

age fell 1.4%, asBoeing(ticker: BA)

andGoldman Sachs Group (GS) had

a particularly rough time. Because the

index is price-weighted, Goldman and

Boeing, which dropped 5.8% on the

week on delayed 787 deliveries, can

make the index swing much more than

lower-priced stocks likeIntel(INTC).

The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.2%,

hitting a record on Friday as tech

stocks continued to rise.Nvidia

(NVDA) was a top performer, adding

7.9% for the week.

The gains are coming despite, or

perhaps because of, a lack of enthusi-

asm in either direction from investors.

“The S&P 500 hasn’t moved 1% or

more in 25 trading days, the longest

streak in two years,” writes Ally Invest

senior investment strategist Callie Cox.

“It’s risen 6% over that same period in a

classic example of a slow grind higher.”

Government data and earnings re-

ports over the past few days offered

investors a temperature check of U.S.

consumers as prices started to rise. The

diagnosis came back healthy—retail

sales rose 1.7% in October, more than

expected, and earnings from several

chains showed that shoppers aren’t

retreating. Results fromHome Depot

(HD) andLowe’s(LOW) suggested

that consumers are still adding ameni-

ties to their homes.Macy’s(M) wowed

Wall Street with a possible plan to sep-

arate its digital business from its

bricks-and-mortar stores; its shares

jumped more than 21% on Thursday.

Results fromKohl’s(KSS) andWal-

mart(WMT) were impressive too.

In fact, earnings have been remark-

ably impressive, even as investors fret

that companies won’t be able to handle

supply-chain slowdowns. The S&P

500 is up 8% during this earnings sea-

son, its best performance in seven

years, according to Cox. “Profit mar-

By Avi Salzman