Dow rises slightly, but loses more than 2% on week; European markets close higher as euro area economic data shows coronavirus toll; BELEX15 up 0.76%; Komercijalna reported strong 1Q20 numbers; NBS reserves at EUR 12.67bn
Stocks finished Friday with slight gains but the major indexes capped the week with significant losses between a slew of somber economic reports and increasing tensions between China and the U.S. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced on Friday by 60.08 points, or 0.25%, to 23,685.42, but ended the week lower by 2.65%. Earlier in the day, the 30-stock average dropped more than 270 points.
The S&P 500 finished Friday’s session up 0.39% at 2,863.70 while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.79% to close at 9,014.56.
Friday’s turnaround also followed better-than-expected data on U.S. consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index unexpectedly rose in early May as U.S. fiscal stimulus measures “improved consumers’ finances and widespread price discounting boosted their buying attitudes.”
U.S. monthly retail sales fell by 16.4% in April, a record. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a decline of 12.3%. So-called core retail sales —which exclude auto, gas, food and building materials sales — dropped 15.3%.
The Trump administration moved to block semiconductor shipments to Chinese company Huawei. The Commerce Department said it would “strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology.”

European markets closed slightly higher on Friday, as investors monitored news about efforts to reopen economies and digested harrowing economic data.
Euro zone GDP (gross domestic product) plunged 3.8% quarter-on-quarter across the first three months of the year, according to a flash estimate from the EU’s statistics agency on Friday.

Serbian BELEX15 was up 0.76%, mainly due to uptrend at Komercijana, Belgrade Airport and Jedinstvo. The most tared name was Komercijana Banka with RSD 7.5m in volume. The bank reported pretty solid 1Q numbers – net profit at RSD 2.2bn, up 36% y/y as other revenues were higher, while better cost control also contributed. The stock gained 1.4% on Friday
At end-April, gross NBS FX reserves equaled EUR 12,792.9m. This level of reserves covered 154% of money supply (M1) and more than five months’ worth of the country’s import of goods and services, almost twice the standard on the adequate level of coverage of the import of goods and services by FX reserves, the bank said.
Source: CNBC, Ilirika