Trading results for 24 January 2025
Trump’s inauguration week was generally marked by gains, with several all-time highs, including one achieved by the S&P500 index. However, the week ended with a slight correction in the US market, which did not stop indexes from ending the week with solid gains. Gains ranged from 1.65% for the NASDAQ Composite, a high-tech company index, to 2.15% for the Dow Jones (DJIA-30). Meanwhile, the broad market index S&P500 settled in the middle with a weekly increase of 1.74%.
The global market index ITS World (ITSW) stood out, not only delivering the best performance among all indexes tracking changes in the US market (+2.22%) but also being the only one to end the week at its historical highs. ITSW’s impressive performance was supported by Chinese stocks, which rallied on Friday in response to the Chinese government’s stock market stimulus measures announced the previous day.
While US indexes were weighed down on Friday by Nvidia (NVDA, -3.12%), leaving the S&P500 and NASDAQ Composite unable to offset the decline, the ITS World index found support from resilient Chinese stocks, which attracted strong investor interest. Among the top five stocks with the highest gains on Friday, four were Chinese companies, alongside pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly (LLY, +2.45%), which came in fifth. Leading the pack were three Chinese tech sector leaders: ID.com (ID, +5.22%), Baidu (BIDU, +4.64%), and NetEase (NTES, +3.75%), far outpacing the major American pharmaceutical player.
Slightly behind ITS World was its counterpart, the Islamic securities index ITS Shariah (ITSS). This notable index gained 1.51% over the week and could have also rewritten its ATH, if not for Nvidia.
Unfortunately, Nvidia came under heavy selling pressure on Friday, dampening an otherwise idyllic market outlook following President Trump’s inauguration. The sell-off was triggered by comments from SK Hynix, a key supplier of memory chips for Nvidia’s GPUs used in artificial intelligence applications. SK Hynix expressed concerns about future demand and highlighted potential challenges such as inventory adjustments, trade protectionism, and geopolitical risks. This naturally unsettled investors and prompted some to reduce their positions.
Despite this, the week was highly successful, and the upward trend remains intact. The next key event likely to influence the market’s direction will likely be Wednesday, 29 January, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will hold a press conference following the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).