Daily Digest: Friday 15th March
USA
Investor sentiment toward US markets was clear on Friday, as the Nasdaq 100 ($NDX) fell 1.15% to 17,808.25, the S&P 500 ($SPX) fell 0.65% to 5,117.09, and the Dow ($INDU) fell 0.49% to 38,714.77.
The tech sector saw fairly widespread sell-offs, shares in software designer Adobe ($ADBE) led declines, falling 13.67% after yesterday’s earnings call and weaker than anticipated revenue growth forecasts. There were significant losses across the cybersecurity sector with Crowdstrike ($CRWD) falling 3.94%, and Snowflake ($SNOW) falling 1.23%. Palantir ($PLTR) also suffered the effects of this shift in sentiment with shares falling 3.85% to the price of $23.49, the lowest level since its early March earnings call, it’s downward momentum was somewhat exacerbated by the sale of a block of shares owned by notorious investor Peter Thiel who sought to reduce the size of his position. Additionally, chipmakers were not exempt from a change in trading momentum, with Broadcom ($AVGO) leading losses falling 2.12%, followed by ASML ($ASML) falling 2.04% and Taiwan Semiconductors ($TSM) falling 1.89%. Nvidia ($NVDA) shares traded within a tight range, only falling 0.12% to $878.36.
Trading throughout the day was supported by growing noise regarding analyst revisions of rate cut expectations for FY24. June remains the general consensus for the Fed to enter the rate cut cycle, however, a number of analysts have reduced their basis point estimates for the year from 100bps to 75bps, likely as a the result of the last week’s CPI, PPI, and employment data prints.
Europe
European market activity was also subdued through Friday, with the UK’s FTSE 100 (FTSE) falling 0.2% to 7,727.42, with movement likely driven by Reckitt Benckiser’s 14.58% session decline, as the firm lost a lawsuit focussed on the safety of one its baby formula products.
UK property giants Barratt Developments (BDEV.L) and Redrow Plc (RDW.L) have found themselves under the scope of a second Competition and Markets Authority enquiry, in almost as many weeks. Following the launch of an investigation on February 26th into eight industry competitors, on the grounds of the 1998 Competition Act. A Thursday CMA press release showed the most recent investigation seeks to explore the competitive implications of Barratt’s acquisition of Redrow. The deal pencilled in for later this year would form the UK’s largest property developer. Barratt shares fell 0.73% through trading, while Redrow shares fell 1.28%.
The STOXX 600 (€SXXP) traded down 0.32% at 504.80, while the German DAX (€GDAXI) fell 0.03% to 17,936.65. The French CAC (€FCHI) managed a marginal session price increase, rising 0.036% to 8,164.35, with intraday highs just 6 points off the indexes 52-week records.
Rest of the World
Despite a weakening of the Yen against the US dollar to ¥148.3690, the Nikkei (¥N225) traded lower through Friday, falling 0.26% to 38,707.64. Trading activity is still largely driven by expectations of a BOJ interest rate pivot during the monetary policy committee’s next meet on Tuesday.
Chinese new house price data for February released Friday morning, with figures marking a 0.36% decline in the price of new homes across the nation’s major cities. This signals continued stress on an already troubled property sector, which has acted as a a significant drag on the Chinese economy since 2020. Despite housing data signalling a somewhat weaker economic outlook, the SSE (¥SSE) index rose 0.54% to 3,054.64, erasing Thursday’s losses.
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin prices continued to slide for the second session running, falling a further 4.09% by 9pm GMT, this marks the first session in a week that prices finished the day trading under $70,000. Intraday lows were $65,600 with prices later pushed upwards to $67,856 by 9pm GMT following a build in positive momentum through the US session.
Ethereum prices fell 4.83% on the day, to $3,646 as the altcoin failed to hold above the $4,000 level broken earlier this week.
After a heavy sell-off on Thursday, crypto stocks managed to rebound. Shares in Coinbase Global Inc ($COIN) rose 3.72%, while shares in MicroStrategy ($MSTR) rose 6.29%, as investors had time to rationalise yesterday’s price action.
Commodities
Crude Oil prices cooled through the day ending a four day streak of gains, with prices falling 0.33% to $80.99 per barrel. The market lacked any real catalysts for price movement as geopolitical pressures persist threatening the stability of market supply.
Gold marked a second session of declines as prices fell 0.36% to $2,159.70 per ounce the lowest level in over a week, as traders struggle to interpret the policy implications of conflicting data prints, losing clarity on their interest rate cut estimates.
Sources:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/world-indices/
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/commodities
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/indices/ftse-100
https://www.binance.com/en-GB/price/bitcoin
https://www.binance.com/en-GB/price/ethereum
https://qontigo.com/index/sxxp/
https://www.forexfactory.com/calendar?day=mar15.2024#detail=136820
Stock Market Activity Today & Latest Stock Market Trends | Nasdaq
https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/barratt-slash-redrow-merger-inquiry