The week ends on a high note, with another record-breaking week... and only intraday/close "doubles".

The Nasdaq (+0.1% to 19,290 after 19,318 during the session) broke a record on a tear, and Tesla with its +8.2% to $321 (+29% on the week) accounted for 100% of the index's gains on Friday.
The stock saw its capitalization soar by +285Bn in 4 sessions to $1,030Bn in 'capi'... and the 'PER' soared to 106.

For the other indices, gains were more straightforward: the Dow Jones (+0.4% to 43,388) made a foray beyond the 44,000 mark, to 44,157Pts, the S&P500 (+0.4% to 4.995) smashed through the 6,000Pts mark to set the tone for the weekend (6,012 at its highest).
The flagship index gained +4.6% over the week, +25.7% since the start of the year and +46% in 1 year and one week to be precise (53 weeks, which is also a record).
The Nasdaq has gained +50% since 10/30/2023 and now boasts an average P/E of 46.85, shattering the limits of the 'known' and especially the 38.6 of the dot.com bubble or the 34.2 of late October 2007.
And let's not forget that it has a performance differential of +7% over the week compared with the E-Stoxx50, which must also be an absolute record (to be verified by going back to the end of 1999) and also a record differential of 30% over the year.

Note - in contrast to the previous 2 sessions - the presence of several notable downward deviations which affected Airbn'b with -8.7%, Moderna -6.9%, Enphase Energy -6.5%, Super-Micro -4%.

The "rates" factor had little influence on the trend: as expected, the Fed last night cut its main key interest rate by a quarter point, its second cut in less than two months, while refraining from providing too many clues as to its intentions for the coming months.
On the bond front, US 10-year T-Bonds eased by 3.5pts to 4.308%, but the "2-year" recovered by +3.2pts to 4.252%.

However, its members unanimously decided to cut the main policy rate, citing tame inflation tending towards 2% and the need to avert the risk of a slowdown in growth, even though it is admittedly "progressing at a sustained pace".

In our view, Trump's second term will be marked by lower corporate taxes, deregulation of the technology sector, the introduction of tariffs designed to stimulate the US industrial sector and relocation, and policies to support crypto-currencies", points out Yan Taw Boon, manager at Neuberger Berman.

Jerome Powell, in the course of a question, put an end to the suspense that had lasted since Wednesday morning: 'I won't resign if Donald Trump asks me to', and the boss intends to see his term of office (which expires in January 2026) through to the end.

With Donald Trump having expressed his intention to impose more flexible and lighter regulations for the sector, Bitcoin set a new record above $76,000 last night, and some already see it reaching the $100,000 threshold in the near future.

The fact that the S&P 500, the benchmark index for US fund managers, is in contact with the 6,000-point mark should also encourage investors to consider a new short-term bullish push (despite +45% without any real correction in 12 months and one week).

On the other hand, the day promised to be rather quiet in terms of indicators: there was no detectable reaction in either equities or T-Bonds to the publication of the Michigan consumer confidence index.

It improved much more markedly than expected in November, show Friday the preliminary results of the monthly survey published by the University of Michigan.

Its confidence index rose for the fourth month in a row, reaching 73 this month against 70.5 in October, while economists were expecting it to stand at just 71.

The report, finalized on Monday on the eve of the presidential election, shows that the sub-index measuring consumer expectations jumped to 78.5, compared with 74.1 the previous month, reaching its highest level since July 202 (Wall Street's -long- series of record highs has fostered a feeling of opulence among the more financially comfortable).

With the employment situation still solid across the Atlantic, inflation tending to moderate and stock market indices at record levels, US household morale should logically remain buoyant.
The barrel of 'WTI' dropped -2.7% on the NYMEX (not very encouraging from a growth point of view).
The '$-Index' recovered well with +0.6% towards 105.15, while the euro gave up 0.7% against the greenback, at $1.0700.


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