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US Markets: Wall Street remained mixed on Friday, 19 November, with the technology leader Nasdaq Composite hitting a fresh record high, led by the gains in heavyweight shares of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Alphabet, Facebook, Nvidia and Adobe Systems. On the other hand, Dow Industrials oscillated in the negative territory as Covid-19 worries escalated with Austria re-imposing the national lockdown.
The developments around the coronavirus pandemic have handheld the equity markets in the last 20 months as the evolving course of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus continues to present unforeseen challenges. With the Austrian government re-introducing the lockdown restrictions in the country, other European countries including Germany are contemplating the situation to enact similar curbs in order to break the chain of transmission and the rising rate of infection, as well as the hospital admissions.
The NYSE-controlled Dow Jones Industrial Average partly recovered in the mid-morning deals after the US House of Representatives passed the much-awaited US President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill on Friday morning. The vote on the bill was initially slated for Thursday evening.
The resurgence of Covid activity in the European region has certainly increased the pessimism amidst the investors as they examine the prospective damage due to reimposition of lockdowns in several regions, at a time when most of the businesses were allowed to resume their operations at the maximum possible capacity.
Of late, the US stock indices have registered new all-time highs in almost a dozen of sessions following the optimism due to better-than-expected corporate earnings with July-September emerging as a promising three-month period for most of the corporate setups due to termination of lockdown restrictions, as well as social distancing guidelines.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 164.50 points, or 0.46% to 35,706.45, while the broader share indicator S&P 500 added 5.29 points, or 0.11% to 4,709.83 and Nasdaq Composite rose 116.91 points, or 0.73% to 16,110.62 after making a fresh lifetime peak of 16,118.16. During the day so far, Dow Industrials has made an intraday bottom at 35,593.19.
US Market News: Amid the Dow components, shares of Boeing were the biggest laggards with the stock collapsing more than 4%, dragging the benchmark index. The decline in the market price of Chevron, Merck & Co, Dow, UnitedHealth Group, Travelers Companies, American Express, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco Systems, Walt Disney Company and Intel provided the biggest negative points to the benchmark index.
While, shares of Nike emerged as the top gainers with the stock advancing more than 3%, followed by the surge in shares of Apple. Other marginal gainers include 3M, Microsoft, Home Depot and Salesforce.
UK Markets: UK shares witnessed a major drop after staging a marginal comeback in the opening deals following the promising retail sales data for the month of October. The market participants are now more worried about the upcoming hardships of Covid-19 as the biggest of European economies are exploring the option of increasing restrictions or re-introducing the nation-wide lockdowns.
The selling pressure and the market-wide dejection was quite evident on Friday after the headline FTSE 100 index slipped below 7,200, for the first time in three weeks. The market index traded near the level of 7,200, as the so-called optimism with regard to upbeat consumer spending in October of 2021 was effectively counterbalanced by the fresh jittery arising from the lockdown news and increasing rate of infection across many countries in Europe, that too after implementation of booster dose programme by almost every major nation including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria and the UK.
The domestic benchmark FTSE 100 fell 32.39 points, or 0.45% to 7,223.57 and the mid-cap barometer FTSE 250 tripped 82.13 points, or 0.35% to 23,492.49.
FTSE 100 (1-year performance)
Source: EODHD/Others
Market Snapshot
Top 3 volume leaders: Lloyds Banking Group, Vodafone Group and International Consolidated Airlines Group
Top 3 sectoral indices: Personal Care, Real Estate Services and Software and Computing
Bottom 3 sectoral indices: Fossil Fuels, Consumer Services and Automotive
Crude oil prices: Brent crude down 3.58% at $78.33/barrel; US WTI crude down 3.86% at $75.38/barrel
Gold prices: An ounce of gold traded at $1,858.90, down 0.13%
Exchange rate: GBP vs USD - 1.3475, down 0.10% | GBP vs EUR - 1.1906, up 0.35%
Bond yields: US 10-Year Treasury yield - 1.531% | UK 10-Year Government Bond yield - 0.8795%
Markets @ 16:50 GMT
