- Title: Wall Street rises as earnings lift outlook
- Date: 29th July 2021
- Summary: SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (JULY 29, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) PEAPACK PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT, SENIOR PORTFOLIO STRATEGIST, DAVID DIETZE, SAYING: "Well, you know, stay diversified, I mean, at the end of the day, you've got such low-interest rates that raise the present value of everything. And just about all sectors across the board are reporting great year-over-year earnings. So it's hard to go wrong in any sector. Having said that, I certainly like some of the cyclical value in dividend-paying areas. Why? Because many of them, for example, the financials, commodities, industrials, energies, are not near their all-time highs. Their valuations aren't as demanding. And we all know that it does matter at the end of the day how much you pay. In here, we're less concerned about overpaying and so forth. And of course, we know that we've got this tailwind here of an economy that is strengthening and of course, U.S. consumers that's coming out of lockdown, reengaging in the real world. So to invest in companies that can take advantage of that trend as opposed to continuing to hide in the pandemic favorites, whether it's your pizza, whether some of your technology tools that enabled you to stay productive, they may not be where the economic ball is moving over the next six months, so we would tilt in the area of the value, the cyclical and the dividend payers." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) PEAPACK PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT, SENIOR PORTFOLIO STRATEGIST, DAVID DIETZE, SAYING: "The reasons for the underperformance (of GDP) are not really so concerning. Here's what I liked about it, first of all, is you look at that consumer expenditure metric that was actually up close to 12, higher than had been expected. And remember the consumer is 70 percent of the US economy, so the consumers are out there alive and kicking well and spending. So where was the weakness? Well, one of the weakest points was that there was a drawdown in inventories, ok? So, I think there's less concern concerning. I'd rather see GDP driven by consumer spending rather than a build of inventories, because eventually then you're going to have to stop production in order to bring those inventories down. Conversely, here, at some point, production will have to ramp up to rebuild those inventories. Of course, there are good reasons, as we know, as to why those inventories may have been drawn down. I think right at the top of the list, of course, is supply bottlenecks due to, of course, such rapid reopening after the shutdown and the economy do COVID-19. And of course, still, there are shortages in terms of being able to hire people for various reasons and so forth. So I kind of give the weakness in the GDP a pass to the extent due to the inventories. And I think that's why you're seeing a very strong market notwithstanding that." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) PEAPACK PRIVATE WEALTH MANAGEMENT, SENIOR PORTFOLIO STRATEGIST, DAVID DIETZE, SAYING: "In terms of the jobless claims and so forth, yeah, it wasn't as good as expected, it was better than we've been seeing in the last few weeks. We still have generally a downward trend. And, of course, we can explain any kind of weakness due to the resurgence, of course, of the Delta variant, which perhaps is causing people to take another check as to whether they really want to get back into the workforce at this point or wait just a little bit longer."
- Embargoed: 12th August 2021 21:10
- Keywords: COVID-19 Delta variant Dow Jones Nasdaq S&P 500 Wall Street coronavirus equities index indices markets shares stocks trading vaccine
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK + SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK + SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economic Events,Equities Markets,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA002ENWB4NB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday (July 29), boosted by robust U.S. earnings and forecasts, while data showed the U.S. economy was above its pre-pandemic level.
The U.S. economy grew solidly in the second quarter, putting the level of the gross domestic product above its pre-pandemic peak, but the pace of GDP growth was slower than economists had expected.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000 for the week ended July 24. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 380,000 applications for the latest week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.60 points, or 0.44%, to 35,084.53, the S&P 500 gained 18.51 points, or 0.42%, to 4,419.15 and the Nasdaq Composite added 15.68 points, or 0.11%, to 14,778.26.
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