Industrial Production in the U.S. Further Slowed in September into Recessionary Trend

As of 4:40 p.m. CET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.52% to 30,644 while the S&P 500 index rose -.54% to 3,735. In its turn, Nasdaq index climbed -.57% to 10,843.

Yesterday, U.S. equities began the new week with solid gains as strong bank earnings and a positive U.K. market reaction to a government decision in London to reverse planned tax cuts boosted optimism, even though a survey of manufacturers in New York state showed a decline in business activity for a third month in a row, as respondents remained pessimistic about conditions improving into next year. The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 3.5% to 30.91 points.

All the stocks in the Dow except Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) showed positive dynamics. Bank stocks, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS), jumped after Bank of America (BAC) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Tech stocks advanced. Tesla (TSLA) shares gained 7% ahead of the electric carmaker’s earnings this week. All the FAAMG stocks rose about 3% or more, with Amazon (AMZN) shares increasing 6% and Meta Platforms (META) shares up 5%.

The S&P 500 recovered with all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 in the green. The best performer was Consumer Cyclicals (consumer discretionary) 3.96%, with Caesars Entertainment (+6.57%), Etsy (+6.13%), and Expedia Group (+5.55%).

The worst performer was Consumer non-cyclicals (consumer staples) -1.20% with J.M. Smucker Company (+0.75%), Walgreens Boots Alliance (+0.72%), and Campbell Soup Company (+0.71%).

Data on industrial production for September released at 9:15 a.m. EST showed further recessionary slowdown. Concurrently, the housing market index for October is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. EST and is highly in focus.

Investors are also awaiting earnings results from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), The Goldman Sachs Group (GS), and Netflix (NFLX).

European markets are trending modestly higher today. At the time of writing, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.75%, the British FTSE 100 rose 0.61% while the French CAC 40 Index gained 0.94%, and German DAX soared 1.52%.

Passenger car registrations in the European Union surged 9.6% YoY to 787,870 units in September. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for the Eurozone remained deeply in negative territory but rose to -59.7 in October versus September's 14-year low reading of -60.7, while German ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment increased by 2.7 points to -59.2 in October.

Asian markets traded mostly higher earlier today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.42%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.82%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.7%, India’s BSE Sensex advanced by 1%, but China’s Composite Index fell 0.13%.