Economic data highlighted the accelerating upward pressure on Inflation, only two days back down U.S. Treasury yields had resumed the upward trend during the day. A general decline in high-valued U.S. technology stocks dragged the broader market lower, but energy stocks stubbornly bucked the market on the back of Crude Oil. Chinese stocks sank collectively as the SEC began enforcing the Foreign Company Accountability Act.
The preliminary U.S. Markit services and composite PMIs for March released on Wednesday were at record highs since July and September 2014, respectively, while price output and input indices in their respective sub-indices were at record highs. Commentary said that higher price indicators for U.S. businesses buying to pay and selling to call stemmed from material shortages and supply chain disruptions, which added to inflation concerns.
However, the Fed’s Powell hearing on Wednesday continued to downplay the impact of rising U.S. bond yields, arguing that the trend in yields has been orderly, reflecting the market’s optimism about the economic outlook, reiterating that inflation will “temporarily rise” this year. U.S. bond yields have since gradually fallen. The 5-year Treasury bid ended at midday with a higher subscription multiple than the last bid, indicating a pickup in demand. After that, U.S. bond yields returned to a downward trend.
In Europe, European stocks rallied on the support of technology stocks led by oil and gas, mining and chip stocks, but the pan-European stock indexes closed slightly higher, dragged by auto stocks such as Volkswagen. German bund prices rose further after the release of Eurozone PMI data, with yields hitting a more than one-month low.
The dollar index continued to rise as cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin fell in tandem. In commodities, crude oil, which plunged on Tuesday, rebounded swiftly, driven by Germany‘s lifting of the severe Easter blockade, the temporary non-functioning of the Suez Canal, an important shipping lane, and data bringing positive demand; precious metals such as Gold ended their daily decline; some industrial metals such as copper remained down.
S&P Dow turned down at the end of the day, led by technology stocks, energy stocks bucked the market higher
The three major U.S. stock indexes performed differently on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average opening higher in the morning session and falling at lunchtime to still maintain gains. At the end of the morning session to refresh the daily high, the Dow rose more than 360 points, up more than 1.1%, the S&P rose 0.8%. Midday Dow rose at least more than 100 points, the S&P rose less than 0.1% when it refreshed its daily low. The Nasdaq Composite Index only at the beginning of the session and the end of the morning session had risen, most of the other times were down, up nearly 0.5% at the beginning of the session when the new daily high, the lunchtime decline expanded, down more than 1.3% when the new daily low.
At the end of the day, with the expansion of the decline in technology stocks, the three major indices collectively dived, the S&P and the Dow have turned down. In the end, the three major indices collectively closed lower for the second consecutive day.
The Nasdaq closed down 2.01% at 12,961.89 points, a new closing low since March 8. The S&P closed down 0.55% at 3889.14 points, while the Dow closed down 3.09 points, or 0.01%, at 32,420.06 points, both hitting new lows for the second consecutive day since March 10.
Small-cap stocks again lost ground to the broader market, with the value-cap-dominated Russell 2000 closing down 2.35%, closing at a new low since Feb. 1. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index closed down 1.68%, with constituents Peleton down more than 19%, Baidu down more than 8% and Zoom down more than 7%.
The S&P 500’s 11 major sectors, five closed up on Wednesday, thanks to crude oil rose more than 6% in the lunchtime energy rose more than 3%, closing up more than 2.5%, far ahead of other sectors, industrial and materials rose about 0.7%, finance rose more than 0.4%, utilities closed slightly higher. Among the declining sectors, information technology, telecom services and non-essential consumer goods fell more than 1%, and essential consumer goods and real estate fell 0.4% to 0.6%. health care closed slightly lower.
Leading technology stocks, tesla closed down more than 4.8%; FAANMG six major technology stocks collectively closed lower, Facebook fell more than 2.9%, Nifty fell more than 2%, Apple fell 2%, Amazon fell more than 1%, Microsoft fell nearly 0.9%, the end of the turn down Google parent company Alphabet fell nearly 0.5%.
Chip stocks, TSMC fell more than 5%, Qualcomm fell more than 4%, Nvidia fell more than 3%, Western Digital, Micron Technology fell more than 2%, Tuesday after hours had risen more than 7% Intel closed down more than 2%; Applied Materials rose 4%; semiconductor ETF SOXX fell more than 1%.
Cruise stocks turned down during the day, Tuesday fell more than 7% Carnival Cruise early morning once up 8%, closed down more than 1%, Norwegian Cruise and Royal Caribbean Cruise early morning had risen nearly 7% and more than 6%, closed down more than 4% and 2%. On Wednesday the global cruise operating giants involved in the International Cruise Association urged the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), starting in early July, the phased resumption of flights in U.S. ports. However, the CDC announced during the midday trading session that the validity of the anti-Epidemic order regarding restrictions on U.S. cruise operations was extended until Nov. 1.
Aviation stocks, the Dow component Boeing once rose more than 3%, closed down more than 0.8%, Tuesday fell more than 4% Delta Air Lines rose more than 2% at midday, slightly closed down, Tuesday fell more than 6% United Airlines and American Airlines had risen more than 1% at midday, closed down nearly 1% and more than 2%, respectively.
Some bank stocks rose against the market, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley rose nearly 0.8% and 0.3%, Citi fell more than 1%, Goldman Sachs fell more than 0.9%, Wells Fargo fell more than 0.3%.
Among other volatile stocks, GameStop (GME) closed down nearly 34% after the division reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results after the bell on Tuesday and decided it would raise money from shareholders through a share offering.
Chinese stocks lost ground in the broader market, with Chinese ETF CQQQ down more than 6%, KWEB down more than 8%, Tencent Music and Vipshop down more than 20%, Aqiyi down nearly 20%, Xiaopeng Auto and Ideal Auto down more than 10%, Beili Beili down more than 9%, Baidu and Predo down more than 8%, Tencent ADR down 5% and Alibaba down more than 3%.
In the European market, pan-European stock indexes closed slightly higher on Wednesday, led by mining, oil and gas and technology stocks, technology stocks in the chip stocks in Intel’s proposed investment of $ 20 billion to build production plants higher, ASM International rose more than 5%, ASML rose more than 4%. Among the declining sectors, led by cars, German car company Volkswagen fell nearly 7%. Only German stocks closed lower in the major European stock indexes.
10-year U.S. bond yields once rose 3 basis points after Powell’s hearing and Treasury bid sales resumed lower
U.S. 10-year benchmark Treasury yields in the Asian market on Wednesday afternoon had been down to test 1.59% to refresh a week-low, down about 3 basis points during the day, since then a road up, U.S. stocks before the market to erase all the decline to rise, refreshing the daily high when the test 1.65%, up 3 basis points during the day.
After the opening of U.S. stocks, with the Powell hearing, the 10-year U.S. bond yield began to fall again at lunchtime, to the end of the hearing, after the announcement of the results of the 5-year Treasury bid, retracted all the gains and turned down, to the U.S. stocks closed at about 1.6%, down 2 basis points during the day. So far, the 10-year U.S. bond prices fell for three days in a row, the longest losing streak since Dec. 14 last year.
European Treasuries had a mixed performance on Wednesday, with British bonds closing almost flat and German bond prices rising for the fourth consecutive day. British 10-year benchmark government bond yield of about 0.76%, almost unchanged Tuesday; German bond yields fell 1 basis point during the day to -0.36%, after the release of the Eurozone PMI had fallen to -0.375%, a five-week intraday low.
Crude oil rose nearly 6%, the biggest gain in more than four months, coming off a six-week low
International crude oil futures rallied big after Tuesday’s plunge. U.S. WTI crude and Brent crude extended their gains to more than 6 percent in midday trading on Wednesday. U.S. oil rose above $61 and Brent stood at $64, both coming off intraday lows set on Tuesday since early February this year.
Finally, WTI May crude oil futures closed up $3.42, or 5.92%, at $61.18/barrel; Brent May crude oil futures closed up $3.62, or 5.95%, at $64.41/barrel, both the largest closing gain in the main contract since November 9 last year, out of the respective closing lows set on Tuesday since February 5 and 8, erasing Tuesday’s respective fell more than 6% and nearly 6% of most losses. On November 9 last year, U.S. oil and BSE closed up more than 8% and 7%, respectively, with crude oil’s surge that day mainly motivated by Pfizer’s announcement of 90% effectiveness of the new crown vaccine.
The Wall Street Journal article pointed out that crude oil was high on Wednesday due to a variety of factors. On the news, Germany decided to abandon its Easter blockade plan; the Suez Canal, an important international shipping lane, was blocked by giant cargo ships. In addition, data showed that U.S. gasoline demand hit a new high in November last year, signs of a rebound in fuel demand and better-than-expected March PMI in the euro zone were also seen as pushing oil prices on Wednesday.
The U.S. dollar index hit a four-month high in two straight days, and bitcoin once fell more than $4,000
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of a basket of six major dollar currencies, had briefly risen above 92.60 at the beginning of the European session, hitting a new intraday high since November last year, and has since retreated, falling below 92.50 at the end of the U.S. morning session and resuming gains at lunchtime.
By Wednesday’s U.S. stock market close, the dollar index was slightly above 92.58, up more than 0.26% on the day, rising for the second consecutive day, and after-hours regained 92.60 to refresh a four-month high, up nearly 0.3% on the day; the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.
Mainstream cryptocurrencies continued their collective decline on Wednesday. Bitcoin (BTC) had risen above $57,200,000 before the U.S. stock market to refresh the daily high, and since then continued to move downward, the U.S. stock market closed below $54,900,000, down nearly 1.6% in the last 24 hours, the U.S. stock market after hours was once below $53,200,000 to refresh the daily low, down more than $4,000 from the intra-day high.
Gold and silver respectively out of more than a week and two-month lows, copper two consecutive negative hit a new one-week low
New York gold futures reversed the momentum of two consecutive days of decline, COMEX April gold futures closed up 0.5% at $1733.20 per ounce, out of the closing trough hit on Tuesday since March 12. New York silver and platinum futures ended a three-day losing streak, with silver futures, which hit a new low on Tuesday since Jan. 15, closing slightly higher.
London base metals futures were mixed on Wednesday. London-based tin ended a two-day streak of gains and fell to a one-month high. LunLead, LunCu and LunZinc fell for two days in a row, and LunCu closed below $9,000 for the second day in a row, hitting a new low since last Tuesday. Lunnickel and aluminium erased some of Tuesday’s losses, with aluminium approaching a high of more than two-and-a-half years.
Among the four commodities of gold, silver, copper and oil, copper futures were the worst performers on Wednesday, while crude oil was the best.
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