After last week’s shortened and volatile week, investors received more of the same over the past week’s trading sessions. The continued rise in new COVID-19 cases weighed on traders during the week. However, they did get a welcome boost from China. Data from Asia’s largest economy and key world super power has begun to turn positive after the pandemic. At the same time, several officials and leaders in Beijing have continued to support the economy through stimulus and other measures, including when China announced continued support for a rising stock market this week. This helped light a fire under global stocks and the firms in the U.S.
However, the week’s China-induced gains were kept in check as the U.S. continued to look into new sanctions and tariffs against the Asian superpower. This included another round of banning apps and software made by Chinese firms.
In addition, overall mixed data provided a difficult trading environment for investors. While this week was light on overall metrics, those that were released – such as key housing and manufacturing gauges – showed an economy that was still struggling. A lack of earnings reports didn’t help either.
All in all, stocks spent much of their time rising – albeit, with plenty of volatility.
Be sure to check out our previous Wrap here, when the shortened week brought gains.
