ASX 200 Faces Steep Decline, S&P 500 Drops Amid Growth Concerns

2 min read | August 02, 2024 10:08 AM AEST | By Team Kalkine Media

Google News:

ASX 200 Faces Steep Decline, S&P 500 Drops Amid Growth Concerns — Image source: Shutterstock

Recent News

What’s Behind Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) ASX 20 Market Buzz?

Amcor (ASX:AMC) ASX 200 or Sonic: Which Story Stands Out?

3 ASX Penny Stocks Building Momentum Through Financial Strength

What’s Driving Interest in These Best ASX Penny Stocks?

Make Kalkine Media
My Trusted Source

ASX 200 Futures: Trading 144 points lower, down 1.81% as of 8:30 am AEST.

Brace for a challenging day – Major US benchmarks closed lower overnight due to disappointing manufacturing and employment data, sparking recession concerns. Intel (INTC) announced layoffs affecting over 15% of its workforce, or 20,000 employees. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms (META) exceeded earnings expectations and projected strong Q3 results. The Bank of England cut rates by 25 basis points as anticipated. This morning, keep an eye on uranium, copper, and lithium stocks.

Overnight Markets:
Major US benchmarks shifted to risk-off mode, closing near session lows.

Russell 2000: Experienced its worst session since February.
Semiconductors: Suffered their worst session since March 20, with Nvidia (NVDA) down 6.6%.

Overnight Earnings Themes:
Key themes included increased capex among big tech, weak demand from China, consumer headwinds, improving advertising trends, and a focus on cost-cutting.

Growth Fears:
Weaker-than-expected US labor and manufacturing data, along with commentary on consumer softness during earnings calls, heightened recession concerns.

ASX Today:

Block Inc. (ASX:SQ2): Reported Q2 adjusted EBITDA of US$759 million, beating the consensus of $689 million. Q3 and full-year guidance also surpassed expectations.
Pinnacle Investment Management (ASX:PNI): Reported FY24 NPAT of $90.4 million, exceeding the consensus of $81.7 million, and issued a final dividend of 26.4 cents.
ResMed (ASX:RMD): Reported Q4 EPS of $2.08, in line with consensus, and raised the quarterly dividend by 10.4% to 53 cents.

What to Watch Today:
Prepare for a tough session with several bearish factors in play – commodities had a heavy overnight session, markets are front-running Fed rate cut expectations, megacap tech stocks are under pressure due to capex concerns (along with Intel's miss and layoffs), and weak US macro data.

Uranium: The Global X Uranium ETF dropped 7.7% overnight to a 9-month low, likely impacting local names.
Copper: Prices fell 2.3% to US$4.06/lb, the lowest since early April, due to growth concerns.
Lithium: Lithium-related ETFs declined around 3% overnight. Albemarle (ALB) noted worsening market conditions, using the term “lower for longer” regarding pricing.
Defensives: S&P 500 sectors like Healthcare, Staples, Real Estate, and Utilities finished over 1% higher overnight. Watch to see if these sectors can offset some of the broader market weakness locally.

Disclaimer

The content, including but not limited to any articles, news, quotes, information, data, text, reports, ratings, opinions, images, photos, graphics, graphs, charts, animations and video (Content) is a service of Kalkine Media Pty Ltd (Kalkine Media, we or us), ACN 629 651 672 and is available for personal and non-commercial use only. The principal purpose of the Content is to educate and inform. The Content does not contain or imply any recommendation or opinion intended to influence your financial decisions and must not be relied upon by you as such. Some of the Content on this website may be sponsored/non-sponsored, as applicable, but is NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold the stocks of the company(s) or engage in any investment activity under discussion. Kalkine Media is neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice through this platform. Users should make their own enquiries about any investments and Kalkine Media strongly suggests the users to seek advice from a financial adviser, stockbroker or other professional (including taxation and legal advice), as necessary. Kalkine Media hereby disclaims any and all the liabilities to any user for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising from any use of the Content on this website, which is provided without warranties. The views expressed in the Content by the guests, if any, are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Kalkine Media. Some of the images/music that may be used on this website are copyright to their respective owner(s). Kalkine Media does not claim ownership of any of the pictures displayed/music used on this website unless stated otherwise. The images/music that may be used on this website are taken from various sources on the internet, including paid subscriptions or are believed to be in public domain. We have used reasonable efforts to accredit the source wherever it was indicated as or found to be necessary.