US stocks closed mostly lower on Friday amid mixed earnings, rising geopolitical tensions and economic data that suggests interest rates will remain “higher for longer”.
The Nasdaq advanced, led by Amazon, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost ground.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5 per cent to close at 4,117.37 on Friday and is now 10.3 per cent below its July 31 high of 4,588.96. That marks its 10th loss in the last 12 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.1 per cent to 32,417.59.
The Nasdaq was the lone bright spot in the market, gaining on the strength of big technology companies that reported good earnings. The index rose 0.4 per cent to 12,643.01.
“We didn’t get much of a bump from earnings season this week, which has been quite mixed and not particularly well-received,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for UK and Europe, Middle East and Africa at Oanda.
“Tech is once more the outlier, with the Nasdaq posting near 1 per cent gains while most other indices sit in the red, buoyed by Amazon’s results.”
Stocks have fallen in the past three months as investors face the prospect of “higher for longer” interest rates, and rising yields on US Treasuries on worries about a hawkish Federal Reserve.
Markets are also concerned about an escalation of tensions in the Middle East, as well as a less than impressive corporate earnings season.
More than two-thirds of stocks for companies in the S&P 500 index are trading below their 200-day moving averages, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Friday marked the end of a busy earnings week, during which nearly one-third of the companies in the S&P 500 posted third-quarter results, Reuters reported.
As of Friday, the season had essentially reached the halfway point, with 245 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 78 per cent delivered consensus-beating earnings, according to Reuters.
Shares of Amazon rose nearly 7 per cent after beating sales estimates, while Intel jumped more than 9 per cent after the chip maker reported much stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected.
“The Nasdaq is higher after impressive earnings from Amazon, which showed their cloud business is headed in the right direction,” according to Edward Moya, senior market analyst for The Americas at Oanda.
“Amazon’s strong earnings come alongside cost-cutting measures that have been in place over the past year. The key for mega-cap tech is to have strong cloud-unit sales and Amazon was able to deliver.”
However, many big companies slipped after reporting disappointing earnings for their latest quarters.
Chevron fell 6.7 per cent after the oil major reported a drop in third-quarter profit. Exxon Mobil fell 1.9 per cent after reporting a bigger drop in profits than analysts expected. Ford declined 12.2 per cent after disappointing earnings and revenue.
Meanwhile, the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, which the Federal Reserve uses as a key measure of inflation, increased 0.3 per cent in September.
Core PCE peaked around 5.6 per cent in early 2022 and has been mostly declining since then, though it is still above the Fed’s 2 per cent annual target.
“Any chance of a dovish hold by the Fed went out the window after core PCE posted its largest gain in four months,” Mr Moya said.
“September data confirmed what everyone on Wall Street knows … The economy peaked at the end of the third quarter. Americans posted robust spending numbers in September, a monthly gain of 0.7 per cent, but that coincided with the personal saving rate falling to the lowest level since March 2022.”
“Personal incomes also rose at a softer pace, which eventually will lead to softer spending habits.”
The US economic resilient story was always going to complicate the disinflation process, as robust demand will be supportive for pricing pressures, Mr Moya said.
Despite the small upside surprise with the PCE deflator, expectations are still strong for inflation to continue to soften in October, he added.
Wall Street expects the Fed to leave its key interest rate unchanged at its November policy meeting.
The Fed has increased its main interest rate above 5.25 per cent to its highest level since 2001 in hopes of reining in inflation.
Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.84 per cent.
Oil prices rose amid fears of an escalation of conflict in the Middle East, which could disrupt crude supplies.
US crude rose to $85.15 per barrel and Brent was at $90.12.
“What we’ve seen this week hasn’t seemingly caused much concern, but it’s also occurred at a time when there’s a lot of focus on the growth outlook and the downside risks to it. So that may well be weighing on crude prices at the same time,” Mr Erlam said.
Rising Middle East tensions should provide some underlying support for bullion, Mr Moya pointed out.
He added that gold seems likely to make a return above the $2,000 level given “too much geopolitical angst”.
Company%20profile
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The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
New Zealand squad
Tim Southee (capt), Trent Boult (games 4 and 5), Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson (games 1-3), Martin Guptill, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Scoreline:
Cardiff City 0
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum 57', Milner 81' (pen)
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Rooney's club record
At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17
At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253
Fireball
Moscow claimed it hit the largest military fuel storage facility in Ukraine, triggering a huge fireball at the site.
A plume of black smoke rose from a fuel storage facility in the village of Kalynivka outside Kyiv on Friday after Russia said it had destroyed the military site with Kalibr cruise missiles.
"On the evening of March 24, Kalibr high-precision sea-based cruise missiles attacked a fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine confirmed the strike, saying the village some 40 kilometres south-west of Kyiv was targeted.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
SPECS
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group B
Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Eriksen 80')
Inter Milan 0
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The%C2%A0specs%20
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2014
Number of employees: 36
Sector: Logistics
Raised: $2.5 million
Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Book%20Details
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
DUBAI%20BLING%3A%20EPISODE%201
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreator%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENetflix%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKris%20Fade%2C%20Ebraheem%20Al%20Samadi%2C%20Zeina%20Khoury%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
