Editors Note: Have a great 4th of July weekend. The markets are closed Friday, July 3rd, so Call Put Strike will resume publishing on Monday, July 6, 2020.
The final trading day of the week ended in the positives for major indexes. The Dow Jones rose by 0.36%, the S&P 500 by 0.45%, and the NASDAQ by 0.52%. The NASDAQ hit an intraday high, as well as a record closing high today. The Dow Jones gained 3.9% this week, while the S&P 500 was up by over 4% this week and the NASDAQ saw increases of 5.2% this week.
Economists are predicting that the employment level in certain industries will never return to what it was before Covid19. This includes the retail, leisure and hospitality, and bar/restaurant industries.
Moderna released new information today that their potential Covid19 vaccine trials will be delayed. Moderna had previously released results from its early-stage trial, showing positive changes in Covid19 patients. Now the late-stage trial will be delayed to an unknown timeframe. Shares of the company were down by over 6% today.
Tesla increased in value again today, as the company outperformed analyst’s expectations. The company has delivered close to 90,650 vehicles in the second quarter, compared to the expected 72,000 deliveries.
New cases of Covid19 continue to rise across the country. Florida has reported an increase of 10,109 new cases on Thursday, which is the largest single-day climb yet. New York has decided to postpone its plans to reopen indoor dining. California has also been forced to pause reopening indoor activities, as thousands of new cases are being reported every day.
The June U.S. jobs report was released Thursday, early due to the Fourth of July holiday. 4.8 million nonfarm jobs were added to the economy within the month. In addition to this, the unemployment rate fell back down to 11.1%. This was much better than previous predictions. Economists had expected an increase in jobs of 2.9 million and an unemployment rate of 12.4%.
For the week ending June 27, the number of Americans filing for unemployment rose by 1.427 million. This is a greater number than was expected. The expectation from economists was that the number would be 1.38 million.
Lemonade, a home insurance company, opened for trading on the NYSE today. Its initial IPO price was $29 per share, but this rose to $50.06 per share, nearly a 73% increase. 11 million shares were sold during the company’s IPO, which resulted in a gain of $319 million.
Avis Budget cars rose by 6% in premarket trading today. The stock had been upgraded to overweight by a representative from Morgan Stanley. He spoke about how the car rental company is recovering quicker than expected. During trading throughout the day, Avis Budget continued to rise to gain close to 17%.
President Trump spoke at a press conference today about the jump in job increases that occurred last month. He said: “Today’s announcement proves that our economy is roaring back. It’s coming back extremely strong. We have some areas where we’re putting out the flames of the fires … I think it’s working out very well.”