On Wednesday, July 24th, the U.S. stock markets closed lower, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting multi-week lows as disappointing Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) earnings shook investor confidence in megacap stocks.
This led to the S&P 500's largest daily drop since December 2022 and the Nasdaq's since October 2022.
In economic data, the S&P Global composite PMI rose to 55.0 in July. The U.S. trade deficit in goods decreased to $96.84 billion in June, while new home sales fell 0.6% to an annualized rate of 617,000.
The S&P 500's sectors largely closed negative, with information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary seeing the biggest losses, while utilities and healthcare stocks closed higher.
Also Read: Google's 'Mojo' Is Back, Says Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives, Sees More Upside For Alphabet Stock
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.25% and closed at 39,853.87. The S&P 500 declined 2.31%, ending the day at 5,427.13, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.64%, finishing the session at 17,342.41.
Asian Markets Today
- On Thursday, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed lower by 3.14%, ending the session at 37,898.00, led by losses in the Steel, Power, and Machinery sectors.
- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 1.29%, ending the day at 7,861.20,
- India's Nifty 50 rose 0.01% to 24,416.00, and Nifty 500 rose 0.05%, closing at 22,933.10.
- China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.52%, ending the session at 2,886.74, and the Shenzhen CSI slid 0.55%, closing at 3,399.27.
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the session lower by 1.77% at 17,004.97.
Eurozone at 06:00 AM ET
- The European STOXX 50 index declined 1.67%.
- Germany's DAX slid 1.23%.
- France's CAC was down 1.80%.
- U.K.'s FTSE 100 traded lower by 0.85%.
- Global stocks fell due to disappointing earnings from Tesla and European luxury brands.
Commodities at 06:00 AM ET
- Crude Oil WTI was trading lower by 1.83% at $76.17/bbl, and Brent was down 1.76% at $80.26 bbl.
- Oil prices fell Thursday due to mixed demand signals despite large U.S. inventory draws. Brent and WTI crude prices dropped amid weak demand in China and ongoing ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
- Natural Gas gained 0.60% to $2.172.
- Gold was trading lower by 1.78% at $2,372.70, Silver fell 4.42% to $28.015, and Copper slid 0.74% to $4.0785.
- Gold and silver prices fell due to rising yen demand, while copper prices dropped to a near four-month low amid weak global manufacturing data and concerns over China's demand.
US Futures at 06:00 AM ET
Dow futures were up 0.13%, S&P 500 futures declined 0.13%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.23%.
Forex at 06:00 AM ET
The U.S. dollar index declined 0.20% to 104.18, the USD/JPY was down 1.06% to 152.25, and the USD/AUD gained 0.90% to 1.5332.
The U.S. dollar slipped Thursday, extending an overnight decline amid confidence in a Federal Reserve rate cut in September. The yen climbed to multi-month highs ahead of the Bank of Japan meeting, boosted by suspected market intervention.
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