|
| |
Market Wrap: Stocks, Bonds, Commodities |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks encountered a sell-off, with the Dow Jones falling 768 points (-1.63%) to 46,225, the lowest closing level year to date.
The S&P 500 dropped 91 points (-1.36%) to 6,624, and the Nasdaq 100 was down 355 points (-1.43%) to 24,425.
As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve held its key interest rate in a range between 3.50% to 3.75%. The central bank pointed out that impacts of the Iran war on the U.S. economy are uncertain.
Meanwhile, U.S. producer price inflation accelerated to 3.4% year on year in February, faster than expected.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield bounced 6.5 basis points to 4.265%.
All tech giants closed lower, with Amazon (AMZN) losing 2.48%, Microsoft (MSFT) down 1.91%, Apple (AAPL) down 1.69%, and Alphabet (GOOGL) down 1.04%.
Nvidia (NVDA) declined 0.84%, while Intel (INTC) rose 2.20%, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was up 1.60%.
Sandisk (SNDK) advanced a further 4.65% to mark another record closing level above 753 dollars.
Micron Technology (MU) was largely flat at close, but fell over 5% in after-market hours. The company reported much-better-than-expected quarterly results, citing increasing demand for memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems. Meanwhile, it boosted its full-year capital-expenditure budget by 5 billion dollars to over 25 billion dollars.
After releasing quarterly results, Macy’s (M) closed 4.73% higher, Lululemon Athletica (LULU) rose 3.84%, while General Mills (GIS) slipped 2.97%.
European stocks also closed lower, with the DAX 40 falling 0.96%, the CAC 40 down 0.06%, and the FTSE 100 down 0.94%.
U.S. WTI crude futures settled less than 1% lower at 95.46 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, but bounced nearly 3% to levels above 98 dollars a barrel in early Asian hours on Thursday after Iran launched missile attacks against Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Gold slid 188 dollars (-3.76%) to 4,818 dollars an ounce.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
The U.S. dollar regained some strength after the Fed held rates steady, with the dollar index rebounding to levels above 100.
EUR/USD fell 88 pips to 1.1450 and GBP/USD dropped 103 pips to 1.3251, while USD/CHF climbed 88 pips (+1.12%) to 0.7933.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank are all expected to keep their interest rates unchanged.
USD/JPY rose 90 pips to 159.88.
AUD/USD was down 84 pips (-1.18%) to 0.7018.
USD/CAD advanced 42 pips to 1.3733. As expected, Canada’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 2.25%.
Bitcoin retreated alongside risk assets, losing over 3% to 71,000 dollars.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
In Asian trading hours, USD/JPY eased to 159.65. The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.75% as expected, while Japan's machinery orders fell 5.5% month-on-month in January, compared with -7.5% estimated.
On the other hand, AUD/USD bounced to 0.7052. Australia's employment increased 48,900 in February, compared with +10,000 estimated, while full time jobs dropped 30,500. Also, jobless rate climbed to 4.3%, above 4.1% expected.
Meanwhile, EUR/USD rebounded to 1.1482 and GBP/USD climbed to 1.3288.
Gold rose 4,861 dollars.
Bitcoin edged up to 71,507 dollars.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
The European Central Bank is expected to keep its main interest rates unchanged, with deposit facility rate staying at 2.15%.
In the U.K., the Bank of England is expected to maintain its benchmark rate at 3.75%, while jobless rate for November-January is estimated to be steady at 5.2%.
The Swiss National Bank is expected to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.00%.
In the U.S., the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index is anticipated to drop to 11.0 in March, while new home sales are expected to slip 0.9% month-on-month in January and the weekly initial jobless claims are estimated at 215,000.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
