August 17, 2020

Stocks opened higher to begin the week but ended up with the S&P and NASDAQ closing positive and another record high for the NASDAQ. In economic news, home builder sentiment jumped to a record high of 78 in August.

Dow Jones finished -86 at 27,844

S&P 500 finished +9 at 3,381

NASDAQ finished +110 at 11,129

The 10 Year Treasury closed down 2 basis points yielding 0.69%

Oil prices closed up $0.81 ending at $42.82 a barrel

Gold prices closed up $44.00 ending at $1,993 an ounce

In the days’ stock news:

Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant, JD.com, closed up more than 7% after the company beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines for the 2^nd This was helped by a nearly 30% increase in annual active customer accounts to a total of 417.4 million.
Nvidia closed up more than 6% after the chipmaker announced they are in talks to buy ARM, another chipmaker. This takeover could be worth up to $52.4 billion.
Novavax, who shares have increased from $4 per share to $151 since the beginning of the year, is beginning a mid-stage study of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa.