Wall Street & European Shares Retreat After Blistering Three Days Rally

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in red - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 71.29 points or 2.71% lower at 2,558.78, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index contracted by 679.28 points or 3.01% lower at 21,872.89, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded lower at 7,584.57, down by 212.97 points or 2.73% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 11:25 AM ET).

US News: Major stocks halted the three-day recovery on Wall Street, and Dow initiated with 1,000-points low as the United States reported 82,404 confirmed cases and has surpassed even China in the count of coronavirus cases. Also, U.S. oil prices have plummeted due to huge slump in demand and ongoing dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The hysterical jobless claims have impacted almost every state and led the highest numeric weekly unemployment rise in Nevada’s history. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Top 20 largest economy have agreed to provide USD 5 trillion to battle with jolted economy together. As per Fitch, the U.S. would undergo an enormous amount of debt to contain the economic disruption and potential recession threat, and this could put its credit rating at risk. Among businesses, the CEO of American Airlines affirmed apprehensions over being qualified for a bailout with the condition of no involuntary furloughs of employees. Also, Moody’s has downgraded the debt of Macy's and Gap to “Junk” due to a steady decline in sales amid Covid-19 shutdown scenario. Consequently, Macy and Gap’s stock plunged around 7% and 10% respectively. With declining oil prices globally, the stock price of Chevron and Exxon Mobil plunged around 6% and 5% respectively. Share of Boeing dropped by around 10%, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines shares plunged between 4 per cent to 8 per cent as U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that stimulus bill will not bailout airlines. Walt Disney share slumped by around 5 per cent on profit booking while Netflix shares were up by around o.4 per cent in Friday’s trading session.Â

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Extra Space Storage Inc, Equity Residential, and Rollins Inc shares increased by 2.37%, 1.94% and 1.81% respectively.

Non Performers*: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd shares plunged by around 17.89%, 17.51% and 17.46% respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Bio-Key International Inc, Top Ships Inc, and Astrotech Corp shares expanded by 320.09%, 97.38% and 38.62% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Arbutus Biopharma Corp, Chanticleer Holdings Inc and Mogo Inc (British Columbia) shares plunged by 42.48%, 35.05% and 29.01% respectively.

Top Worst Sectors*: Energy (-6.51%), Basic Materials (- 3.71%), and Industrials (-3.59%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*:Â Procter & Gamble Co and Travelers Companies Inc, are the top gainer and Increased by 0.90%, and 0.67%.

Worst Performers*: Boeing Co, Walt Disney Co, and Exxon Mobil Corp are top laggards and decreased by 10.63%, 6.75% and 6.52% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 305.40 points or 5.25% lower at 5,510.33, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 610.91 points or 3.97% lower at 14,769.80, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 157.86 points or 4.96% lower at 3,021.89 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended, down by 10.48 points or 3.26 per cent, at 310.90.

On Friday, the European Union policymakers failed to meet consensus over rescue package which led to a decline in the European shares. The share prices sank further with the news of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson got affected by fatal respiratory disease and has quarantined himself. He had been meeting several MP’s and high ranking officials of the country over the past several days, should any more of these people report positive to the infection, the situation could become unprecedented  for the country. Moreover, the required efforts to keep Britain’s economy afloat through Coronavirus crisis would cost the budget deficit of over GBP 175 billion (USD 210 billion). The British car output is expected to cut by over 15% this year since factories have been shut down for months. Among the stock, the major homebuilders including Berkeley Group, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon dropped between 7% to 8%, since UK government urged people to avoid switching houses amid the virus outbreak. Likewise, the Carnival Corp slumped 11% with the news that the USD 2 trillion air package might exclude cruise liners not registered in the United States. In other news the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today extended the two week moratorium it had put on companies to publish their intermediate and final results due during the month. Now these companies will have between two to six months extra to prepare and publish their financial results.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: INTU PROPERTIES PLC (INTU), CAPITAL & REGIONAL PLC (CAL) and LOOKERS PLC (LOOK) are top movers and rose by 18.81%, 14.61% and 12.31% respectively.

Worst Performers*: PROVIDENT FINANCIAL PLC (PFG), ARROW GLOBAL GROUP PLC (ARW) and ROYAL MAIL PLC (RMG) plunged by 21.71%, 16.32% and 16.21% respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (March-27-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: HIKMA PHARMACEUTICALS PLC (HIK) and SAINSBURY(J) PLC (SBRY) expanded by 0.78% and 0.24% respectively.

Non Performers*: CARNIVAL PLC (CCL), ASHTEAD GROUP PLC (AHT) and FERGUSON PLC (FERG) plunged by 17.57%, 13.74% and 11.37% respectively.

Shares traded with high-level volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (BP.) BP PLC and (BARC) BARCLAYS PLC.

Top Sectors traded in the negative zone*: Energy (down 8.85%), Consumer Cyclicals (down 8.01%) and Telecommunications Services (down 6.64%).

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2390 and 0.8942, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.744%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.362%, respectively.

Â

*At the time of writing