| The Dow Jones Industrial broke an eight session losing streak on Friday, even as the US President threatened to levy higher tariffs on cars made in the European Union. By the end of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 0.49% or 119.19 points at 24,580.89, alongside a gain of 0.19% or 5.12 points to 2,754.88 for the S&P 500, but the Nasdaq Composite was lower by 0.26% or 20.13 points to 7.692.82. Had the Dow finished lower on Friday, it would have marked the exporter heavy benchmark's worst losing streak since 1940. Shares of oil equipment and exploration companies were the best performers, while to the downside the biggest drag came from Clothing & Accessories (-1.77%), Airlines (-1.70%) and Apparel Retailers (-1.61%). Stoking gains in the oil patch, crude oil futures staged a sharp move back towards their 52-week highs after OPEC+ nations announced that they would boost output, albeit by an indeterminate amount, in what was considered to be a 'fudge' solution so as not to anger Iran. In practice, it was expected to result in increased output of between roughly 0.6-0.7m b/d, according to various sources. Within the Dow, the biggest gains were for DowDuPont (2.63%), Verizon Communications (2.32%), McDonald's (2.50%), GE (2.27%) and Chevron (2.05%). In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note settled at its session lows of 2.89%. Helping to boost investor sentiment perhaps, according to Bloomberg some US administration officials were pushing for a last-minute rapprochement between Beijing and Washington before the first US tariffs kicked-in on 6 July - but they were said to be facing stiff opposition. On the flip side, shortly after the 'opening bell' President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would place a 20% levy on European cars if Europe did not lower and remove its tariffs and barriers soon. Waiting for a summer 'buy' signal, Tech stocks anomalous Commenting on the market outlook, the day before strategists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch had told clients: "asset prices broadly following our peak Profits, peak Policy script YTD; Quantitative Tightening (not tax cuts, trade wars...) is the driver [...] hence underperformance of QE winners (EM debt, HY, IG), outperformance of QE losers (volatility, cash, commodities, US$); tech stocks are the anomaly, but largely vulnerable to investor deleveraging"." They continued, explaining that what they termed 'Quantitative Tightening' was currently the main driver behind the relative performance between asset classes. Thus, they were waiting for a drop in the S&P 500 below 2,650 points and a weak June US non-farm payrolls report that could take a Fed "hike or two off the table" before possibly turning 'bullish' for the summer. Weighing on sentiment a tad, IHS Markit's widely-tracked factory sector Purchasing Managers' Index for June slipped to a reading of 54.6, down from May's print of 56.4 - to a seven-month low. Nevertheless, together with the results of its services sector PMI, the survey compiler said the two were evidence that the US economy was enjoying a "strong second quarter" with the rate of expansion in GDP over the second quarter likely well over 3%. In corporate news, shares of software company Red Hat plummeted after it issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the second quarter late on Thursday. Still, David Madden at CMC Markets UK said the stock has been in a solid upward trend since February 2016 so the pullback might entice new buyers. Elsewhere, stock in CarMax bolted higher after the used car seller posted first quarter earnings per share of $1.33 (consensus: $1.2) on sales of $4.792bn (consensus: $4.605bn). | 
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