US Stocks Plunge, NASDAQ Tumbles 3.64% Amid High Trading Volume; Gold and Oil Prices See Gains – APM Capital Market Report

Mark Pussard, Head of Risk, APM Capital

Wallstreet market

U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Wednesday in one of the worst trading days of the year. Tesla led the way with a 12.3 % fall. Alphabet lost 5.03 %, while Nvidia closed with a 6.8 % loss.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 closed at 5,427.13, falling by 128.61 points, or 2.31%. The trading volume was 2.93 billion shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day at 39,853.87, down by 504.22 points, or 1.25%, with a trading volume of 390.372 million shares.

The NASDAQ Composite saw a significant drop, closing at 17,342.41, down by 654.94 points, or 3.64%. The trading volume was notably high at 5.493 billion shares.

European market

On Wednesday, European markets saw a range of performances across various indices, reflecting a day of mixed results.

The FTSE 100 in London closed at 8,153.69, experiencing a slight drop of 13.68 points, or 0.17 %. The DAX saw a significant decline, ending at 18,387.46, down by 170.24 points, or 0.92 %.

The CAC 40 closed Wednesday at 7,513.73, with a loss of 84.90 points, or 1.12 %. The ESTX 50 index ended at 4,861.87, falling by 54.93 points, or 1.12 %.

The BEL 20 was one of the few European indices to see a rise on Wednesday, closing at 4,047.18, up by 9.03 points, or 0.22 %.

Asian market

The Nikkei 225 dropped significantly to 39,154.85, losing 439.54 points, or 1.11 %. The Hang Seng Index fell by 158.31 points, or 0.91 %, closing at 17,311.05. The STI Index saw a minor decrease Wednesday, closing at 3,460.82, down by 0.34 points, or 0.01 %. The S&P BSE SENSEX dropped by 280.16 points, or 0.35 %, ending at 80,148.88.

BSE Sensex and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, opened in red a day after the Union Budget 2024 speech by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Both BSE Sensex and Nifty50 were marginally down.

The Indian stock market witnessed a mixed trading session on Wednesday, July 24, as the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty 50 extended their losing streak for the fourth consecutive session. In contrast, midcap and small cap segments recorded healthy gains, indicating a selective investor appetite post-budget.

The Sensex closed the day with a decline of 280 points, settling at 80,149, while the Nifty 50 fell by 66 points to 24,414. The drag on the indices was largely due to losses in heavyweight.

Commodities

Gold prices rose in Asian trade on Wednesday, although gains were limited by strength in the dollar as uncertainty over the U.S. presidential race and anticipation of a Federal Reserve meeting kept traders on edge.

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,416.72 an ounce, while gold futures expiring in August rose 0.4% to $2,417.65 an ounce. Spot prices were nursing a tumble from record highs over the past two weeks.

Oil prices settled higher Wednesday, recovering from a recent wobble as traders weighed a larger-than-expected dip in U.S. crude inventories against a softer global demand outlook.

Brent Oil rose 0.9% to $81.71 from the Energy Information Administration showed U.S. oil inventories fell 3.7 million barrels in the week ended July 19, compared with expectations for a draw of 2.6 million barrels.

Forex

On Wednesday, the global foreign exchange market experienced varied movements among major currency pairs, most notably a significant rise in the Japanese yen.

The Japanese yen shot up to 153.92, marking an advance of 1.06 % & euro traded lower against the U.S. Dollar, falling to 1.0840. This represents a decline of 0.12 %.

The British pound remained stable against the dollar, with no change in its rate at 1.2907. The Swiss franc advanced 0.64 % to last trade at 0.8855. The Canadian dollar slumped to 1.3811, a loss of 0.20 %. The Australian dollar weakened against the U.S. dollar, diving to 0.6583, a decline of 0.48 %.

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Last Updated on 6 months by News Desk 2