** S&P 500 .SPX rises 1.7% in rocky trading as bank earnings, President Trump's trade comments on China in focus .N
** Dow .DJI climbs 1.6%, Nasdaq Composite .IXIC ascends 2.1%
** The CBOE market volatility index .VIX, Wall Street's "fear index", soars to about 29, over 5-month high, before easing back under 21 level
** U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield US10YT=RR edges below 4%, then ends around that mark, for its third consecutive weekly decline US/
** In the end, every sector navigates higher with Communication Services and Real Estate most buoyant, while Financials barely stay afloat
** Real estate .SPLRCR rallies 3.4%. Prologis PLD.N rises after Q3 beat, forecast hike on strong warehouse leasing
** Tech .SPLRCT tacks on 2.1%. Broadcom AVGO.O surges on OpenAI custom AI chip deal
Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML ASML.AS earnings boost U.S. chip firms including Nvidia NVDA.O, AMD AMD.O
Semiconductor index .SOX pops nearly 6%
In contrast, cybersecurity firm is worst SPX performer F5 FFIV.O, falls 9%, after reporting nation-state hack
** Consumer Staples .SPLRCS up 2%. Walmart WMT.N lifts following OpenAI partnership for ChatGPT feature
Bunge BG.N jumps as analysts cite strong earnings outlook following grain trader's merger with Viterra, BG notches 21% gain
** Industrials .SPLRCI firm 1.2%. J.B. Hunt JBHT.O shares accelerate 20% on the week as cost cuts boost trucking firm's qtrly profit
** Financials .SPSY inch up fractionally. Big banks gain early in week as Bank of America BAC.N, Morgan Stanley MS.N round off stellar qtr, a day after JPMorgan JPM.N, Goldman Sachs GS.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N predict business would continue to boom, though warn of asset price bubbles
Then on Thurs, regional banks Zions ZION.O and Western Alliance WAL.N plunge as credit quality concerns unnerve investors, and on Fri, group steadies
For the week, S&P 500 banks index .SPXBK adds 1.6%, but KBW regional banking index .KRX descends 1.7%
** Meanwhile, individual investor optimism about the short-term outlook falls, per latest AAII survey
** SPX performance YTD:
Comm Svcs | 23.9% |
Tech | 22.2% |
Utils | 20.8% |
Industrials | 15.1% |
SPX | 13.3% |
Financials | 7.9% |
Materials | 5.6% |
Healthcare | 4.0% |
Staples | 3.8% |
Real Estate | 3.3% |
Discretionary | 2.3% |
Energy | 0.7% |
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his)
((lance.tupper@tr.com))