Friday’s market minute
- Global stocks mixed on the last trading day of the month, with Asia held back by recovery concerns and Europe and the US higher on the back of big tech gains.
- Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google beat Wall Street’s forecast, with revenue rising to a collective of $ 205.2 billion.
- However, persistent concerns about US growth are driving the dollar to a new two-year low, and gold to a new all-time high, in overnight trading.
- Coronavirus cases in the United States increased by more than 68,000 on Thursday, bringing the grand total to 4.6 million.
- World oil prices are recovering thanks to a weaker US dollar, but demand concerns keep crude oil adjusted to its $ 40 per barrel trading range.
- US equities futures suggest firmer open on Wall Street ahead of Merck, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Colgate gains before trading starts and inflation and personal consumption data at 8:30 am Eastern Time.
Wall Street futures extended gains on Friday, fueled by gains from the biggest tech stocks in the US after box office gains after yesterday’s close of trading, but lingering concerns over the fate of the recovery Global economic growth and rising rates of coronavirus infection continue to cloud investor sentiment.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) – Get report it will only add at least 150 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the start of trading, thanks to the pre-market increase of 6% in stocks following last night’s earnings report, which included nearly $ 60 billion in revenue and a better than expected Final result of $ 2.58 per share.
Apple’s plans to split its shares, which are currently trading north of $ 400 each, could be holding earnings for the Dow, given the tech giant’s impact on the price-weighted average.
Amazon Inc. (AMZN) – Get reportAdditionally, it will provide a huge boost for both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, with a 5.4% share of the pre-market after the online retailer posted record quarterly sales gains of nearly $ 90 billion.
However, Thursday’s grim second-quarter GDP reading, which showed an annualized contraction of 32.9%, the strongest since records began, as well as a rise in weekly jobless claims, were powerful reminders to Investors say any internal recovery will be based on domestication The spread of cornavirus, which has infected 4.6 million Americans and killed at least 154,000.
In fact, those concerns are expressed much more dramatically in the value of the US dollar than in stocks, with the dollar falling to a new two-year low against a basket of its global peers in overnight trade, declining in July. at about 5%, the most in ten years.
Gold prices have also had their best month in almost five years, rising nearly 11% since the end of June to a new record of $ 1,974.00 per ounce in night trade during the implementation of new coronavirus blocking orders in the Kingdom United. and Japan threatened to impose new restrictions on movements and business in Tokyo amid a new outbreak in the capital.
The shares, meanwhile, are slated for mixed earnings from opening bells on Friday, despite the impact of Amazon, Apple and Facebook. (full board) – Get report and Google (GOOGL) – Get report, with futures contracts linked to the Dow suggesting a 94 point advance and those linked to the S&P 500, which rose 4.7% during the month, indicating a stronger jump of 23 points.
Meanwhile, future Nasdaq composites are guiding a 200-point opening bell gain that would push the technology-focused index to a new all-time high.
European stocks also posted solid early gains, with the Stoxx 600 rising 0.72% in early trading, spurred by a 0.8% gain for the DAX performance index in Germany and a 0.6% gain for the FTSE 100 in London.
However, the euro is on track to hit its best month against the dollar in a decade, having hit the 1.19 level in overnight trade for the first time since May 2018, with the pound rising to a four-month high. and a half. of 1.3134 against the fall of the dollar.
The weak dollar helped global oil prices rebound on Friday, despite demand concerns related to the resurgence of COVID-19 and mixed industrial data from China.
WTI contracts for September delivery, the US benchmark, 30 cents more since its closing on Thursday in New York and were changing hands at $ 40.22 a barrel in early European operations, while Brent contracts for September, the global benchmark, saw an additional 30 cents at $ 43.08 a barrel.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.82% on the session to push the benchmark into negative territory for the month, fueled by declines last night on Wall Street and a stronger yen, while The region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index, that of the region The broadest measure of stock prices, fell 0.31% in the last hours of trading.
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