US indices recovered slightly after Wednesday's sell-off, although all remain in the red over the course of the week. Results across Europe were mixed, but the macro-economic outlook remained overwhelmingly negative. Asian and Australasian indices saw a negative day of trading, with the majority of indices falling by more than -1%.
US indices attempted a comeback after Wednesday's losses, but the S&P 500 and NASDAQ ended down -0.5% and -0.9%, respectively. Positively, the DOW closed up +0.2%. Investors looked to ditch technology stocks for the second day in-a-row with Nvidia down -2.0%, AMD down -4.0%, and Alphabet down -3.0%. The US economy grew +2.8% year-on-year through Q2, much higher than the +2.1% expected. IBM jumped +4.6% after reporting revenue higher than the market anticipated. Ford on the other hand slipped -17.9% after missing profit forecasts by a considerable margin. In terms of fixed income securities, the 2-year US treasury bond yield rose +3bps to 4.441% whilst its 10-year counterpart fell -3bps to 4.257%.
Poor results emerging out of US tech, weak Chinese demand, and unfavourable German business sentiment combined to see Europe’s Stoxx 600 drop -0.7%. Nestle finished down -5.1% after downgrading their sales outlook for FY24 by -3%. In London, the FTSE 100 finished trading higher, gaining +0.4%. BT Group began trading by falling -2.4% after results saw a decline in quarterly revenue, however it finished the day +8.6% after a flurry of trades in the late afternoon. British drug-maker Indivior jumped a major +17.3% after pleasing investors with its quarterly results.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell -3.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumped -1.8%, Korea’s KOSPI index dropped -1.7%, and China’s Shanghai Composite and CSI 300 fell -0.5% each. In Australia, the ASX 200 fell -1.3% as disappointing US tech earnings rippled across the Pacific. Despite strong iron ore export forecasts for 2025, Fortescue slipped -5.5%. Favourable gold prices saw Newmont add +1.3%. Macquarie finished down -3.4% after its quarterly results showed no improvement in profit from the same quarter last year. Seek fell -1.7% after news broke that it had written down the value of its Chinese marketplace, Zhaopin, as economic conditions continue to weaken. In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell -1.1%.
WTI Crude gained +0.9% to US$78.26/bbl, Gold fell -1.7% to US$2,357.50, and Iron Ore rose +0.4% to US$107.47/MT.