Global Equities Tumble Due to Oil Crash

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in red - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 77.96 points or 2.76% lower at 2,745.20, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index contracted by 543.40 points or 2.30% lower at 23,107.04, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded lower at 8,270.82, down by 289.91 points or 3.39% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 11:10 AM ET).

US News: The Wall Street plummeted and geared towards a consecutive second day of losses, amidst the oil price crash. The oil markets are collapsed and dragging May future contracts settling in negative territory since investors are apprehensive about sluggish oil demand and lack of storage facility. The global oil benchmark Brent also fell sharply below USD 19 a barrel. Subsequently, Chevron Corp. fell over 2 per cent. Meanwhile, existing home sales fell by 8.5 per cent in March 2020, as per the National Association of Realtors. Among other stocks, Beyond Meat surged over 13 per cent, after announcing the partnership with Starbucks. Coca-Cola dipped around 1 per cent post reporting a difficult second quarter leading to a decline in sales. IBM’s stock plunged around 5 per cent post reporting weaker first-quarter sales. LabCorp gained around 3 per cent as its home test received the emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: FLIR Systems Inc, Equifax Inc, and Carrier Global Corp shares increased by 10.34%, 5.47% and 3.84%, respectively.

Non Performers*: Fortinet Inc, Salesforce.Com Inc and Paycom Software Inc shares decreased by 7.33%, 7.07% and 6.23%, respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Energous Corp, Peck Co Holdings Inc and DropCar Inc shares expanded by 249.57%, 69.23% and 69.06%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc, Summit Wireless Technologies Inc and Safe-T Group Ltd shares plunged by 51.04%, 44.27% and 29.73%, respectively.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Travelers Companies Inc, Exxon Mobil Corp and Coca-Cola Co are the top gainers and increased by 3.80%, 1.70% and 0.01%, respectively.

Non Performers*: International Business Machines Corp, Caterpillar Inc and Microsoft Corp shares decreased by 3.26%, 3.21% and 3.01% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 171.80 points or 2.96% lower at 5,641.03, the FTSE 250 index snapped at 423.48 points or 2.68% lower at 15,399.25, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 92.28 points or 2.88% lower at 3,108.44 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended down by 11.39 points or 3.39 per cent, at 324.31. Among other major European indices, DAX index closed the session at 10,249.85, down by 426.05 points or 3.99%; CAC 40 index decreased by 170.84 points or 3.77% and ended the trading session at 4,357.46.

European News: London and European markets tumbled with first-time oil price crash below zero with squeezing storage facilities. Subsequently, the stock of Royal Dutch Shell and BP PLC fell over 3%. In other economic news, the Office for National Statistics reported a monthly increase in jobless claims to 12,100 (much below than the median forecast). Among the stocks, Associated British Foods dipped around 3.3% post scrapping its dividend and inability to provide full-year guidance. Also, the major miners, including Rio Tinto and Glencore, fell around 4% due to weak commodity prices and estimation over falling global steel production. Contrarily, the stock price of the London Stock Exchange group rose over 0.8% post reporting good progress towards Refinitiv’s acquisition in their latest trading update.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: STV GROUP PLC (STVG), AIRTEL AFRICA PLC (AAF) and APTITUDE SOFTWARE GROUP PLC (APTD) are top movers and rose by 8.68%, 7.13% and 5.00%, respectively.

Worst Performers*: DIALIGHT PLC (DIA), PREMIER OIL PLC (PMO) and TULLOW OIL PLC (TLW) plunged by 15.80%, 11.02% and 10.19%, respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (April-21-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Best Gainers*: PHOENIX GROUP HOLDINGS PLC (PHNX), FRESNILLO PLC (FRES) and ADMIRAL GROUP PLC (ADM) expanded by 3.98%, 3.76% and 3.23%, respectively.

Non Performers*: EVRAZ PLC (EVR), ASHTEAD GROUP PLC (AHT) and ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS PLC (ABF) plunged by 9.11%, 6.58% and 6.47%, respectively.

Shares traded with high-level volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (VOD) VODAFONE GROUP PLC; (BP.) BP PLC.

Oil Prices*: WTI crude oil future price was nudging at $11.03 per barrel, and Brent crude oil future price was trading at $18.82 per barrel.

Forex Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were hovering at 1.2271 and 0.8840, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was tilting at 0.566%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was hovering at 0.301%, respectively.

*At the time of writing