Your Evening Briefing: Wall Street Puts a Bullish Stamp on November

Stocks continued their November rally this week following last month’s grim tidings thanks to a surge in tech giants. A rebound in the S&P 500’s most-influential group sent the gauge to a seven-week high Friday, rising above its key 4,400 mark and the 100-day moving average—seen as a bullish development. The Nasdaq 100 climbed the most since May, with Microsoft hitting a record and Nvidia extending its advance into an eighth session. “Stocks have staged a meaningful recovery,” said Adam Turnquist at LPL Financial. “Oversold conditions, solid earnings and a sharp pullback in interest rates have been the primary drivers.” A breakout above 4,400 would “reverse the S&P 500’s current downtrend” he said, “raising the probability that the correction lows were set last month.”

Led by the landmark gains of the United Auto Workers in their strike against the Big Three, it’s become clear that American labor is resurgent—and Wall Street has taken note. S&P 500 executives and analysts talked about unions on earnings calls more this year than any other on record, according to data going back two decades. Mentions of unions and related terms, such as strikes and labor contracts, rose almost 80% from a year ago and surged more than three-fold from 2021, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of transcripts. The subject was brought up on the calls of 81 companies, or 16% of the index.