U.S. major stock indexes jumped at the open this morning, enough to make a small dent in the sharp losses of the past two days. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are all on track to post their biggest weekly losses since the week ending March 23rd.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sounded very optimistic this morning when he told CNBC, the US economy is “incredibly positive,” and that this week’s stock market plunge was a “natural correction” where “markets tend to go too far in both directions.”
However, JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Dimon’s comments were slightly more pointed. This on the heels of a Friday morning earnings report where JPM beat the street’s expectations for third-quarter earnings and revenue. It can be seen through the JPM report that better-than-expected results in core retail banking operations are offsetting weakness in bond trading.
“The U.S. and the global economy continue to show strength, despite increasing economic and geopolitical uncertainties, which at some point in the future may have negative effects on the economy,” Dimon said in the earnings press release.
We also saw a strong start to the Q2 earnings season from other banking titans as both Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) announced solid beats. Wells Fargo topped expectations amid the bank’s revamp and Citigroup shares rose more than 2% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings.
Tech shares also rebounded from steep losses earlier this week as segment leaders Netflix, Amazon and Apple rallied. Facebook rose 1.4 percent, and Alphabet advanced 2.5 percent.
So for now, this week’s market slide has been “Reset.”