The attention of the global financial markets and the US stock market remains on the current outbreak of coronavirus disease and latest news and developments, still the US stock market proved to be resilient as earnings season provides optimistic outlook about growth prospects, mainly about revenue and earnings.

On February 12, 2020 Fed Chairman Jerome Powell testified before Senate Banking Panel and mentioned that Central Banks should adopt a cautious outlook on coronavirus and expressed his optimism about the state of the US economy. “There’s no reason why the current situation of low unemployment, rising wages, high job creation — there’s no reason why it can’t go on,” Powell told the Senate Banking Committee in his second day of congressional testimony. “There is nothing about this economy that is out of kilter or imbalanced.” Source.

On February 13, 2020 the US Consumer Price Index remained unchanged at 2.5% on a yearly basis for the month of January 2020, and the weekly Continuing Claims and Initial Jobless Claims were better than expected showing strength for the job market. On Friday February 14, 2020 the figure for the Retail Sales Advance came in at 0.3%, same as expected, and the figure for the University of Michigan Sentiment beat the expectations, with a number of 100.9, better than the forecast of 99.5.

For the week of February 10 – February 14, 2020 the major US stock market indexes closed as follows on Friday, February 14, 2020:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Close 29398.08, +1.02% for the week, +3.01% Year-to-date

• S&P 500 Index: Close 3380.16, +1.58% for the week, +4.62% Year-to-date

• NASDAQ: Close 9731.18, +2.21% for the week, + 8.45%, Year-to-date

• Russell 2000: Close 1687.58, +1.86% for the week, +1.15% Year-to-date

Weekly Stocks Gainers

These are the top 3 gainers, stocks with 5 days of consecutive price advances:

1. Genprex Inc (GNPX), Close 4.28, 5-day change +56.20%

2. Virgin Galactic Hlds Inc (SPCE), Close 15.69, 5-day change +38.23%

3. Pavmed Inc (PAVMW), Close 2.46, 5-day change +32.26%

Weekly Stocks Losers

These are the top 3 losers, stocks with 5 days of consecutive price declines:

1. Benitec Biopharma Ltd ( BNTC), Close 4.76, 5-day change -36.02%

2. Consol Coal Resources LP (CCR), Close 7.70, 5-day change -26.88%

3. Trio-Tech International (TRT), Close 3.45, 5-day change -25.49%

Economic events for the week February 16- February 21, 2020:

The new week starting on February 16, 2020 will focus on important economic data being released, the most important being the minutes from the January Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, inflation data and the preliminary Purchasing Managers' Index figure.