US stocks hit fresh records as European bourses retreat

NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks closed at fresh records on Friday, extending a post-election rally while European equities pulled back as investors weighed the impact of Donald Trump’s presidential election win.
All three major US indices pushed to records, with the S&P 500 ending up around 4.7 percent for the week.
“We’re in this honeymoon period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, which we saw in previous election cycles,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital Management.
Ablin thinks the strength in US equities could extend through the rest of 2024, but cautioned that worries about overvaluation will grow if the market keeps rising.
But Europe’s main stock markets closed in the red, with Frankfurt also digesting the collapse of the German government coalition and Paris hit by falling luxury shares.
“It has been an eventful week in the markets and markets are still continuing to digest what Trump’s big victory means for the dollar and other risk assets,” said City Index and Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.
Analysts say US president-elect Donald Trump’s planned tax cuts and import tariffs could rekindle inflation in the United States and beyond, which could in turn see the Federal Reserve scale back on interest-rate cuts.
“(Fed) news which ordinarily would have drawn a lot of the market’s focus has been pushed down the agenda as attention is turned to the implications of Donald Trump’s return to the White House,” noted Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell trading group.