Daily Summary: Markets Stabilize After Moody's US Downgrade

8:35 pm 19 May 2025

  • US500 fell 1% after recovering from an early slide that topped 2%, while the US100 declined 1.5% and the US30 finished 0.7% as investors digested Moody's downgrade of US credit.

  • US Leading Economic Index declined 1.0% in April, worse than the expected 0.9% drop and marking its largest monthly decrease since March 2023.

  • Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic signaled just one potential rate cut in 2025, expressing concern that inflation isn't decreasing toward the Fed's target as quickly as expected and citing uncertainty about tariff impacts.

  • JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned a recession remains possible despite the bank's economists recently lowering their recession probability below 50%, citing the country's large deficit, rising long-term interest rates, and inflation concerns.

  • Wall Street strategists largely dismissed the Moody's downgrade with Thomas Lee at Fundstrat calling it a "non-event" and Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson suggesting investors "buy the dip" on any resulting weakness.

  • Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed a $15 billion cost from the US ban on its H20 chips for China, calling it "enormously costly" and "deeply painful" during an interview at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

  • Microsoft unveiled its "open agentic web" vision at its annual Build conference, projecting businesses will deploy 1.3 billion AI agents by 2028 and introducing various tools including the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit.

  • Tesla shares fell 3% after Chinese tech giant Xiaomi announced it will reveal its Model Y competitor, the YU7 crossover EV, this Thursday, May 22.

  • Netflix was downgraded by JPMorgan to Neutral from Overweight despite a higher price target, with analyst Doug Anmuth citing the stock's elevated valuation after its 30% year-to-date gain.

  • Bath & Body Works CEO Gina Boswell resigned and was immediately replaced by former Nike executive Daniel Heaf as the retailer reported preliminary Q1 results at the high end of guidance.

  • 10-year Treasury yield rose 2 basis points to 4.50% with the 30-year yield briefly climbing above 5% amid growing concerns about America's ballooning debt burden.

  • Dollar Index dropped 0.6% with the euro rising 0.8% to $1.1253 and the Japanese yen strengthening 0.5% against the dollar to 144.93.

  • Bitcoin traded above $104,000 after holding the key $100,000 milestone, gaining 0.4% to $104,504, while Ether rose 2.5% to $2,453.

  • 30-year mortgage rates edged up to 6.81% from 6.76% last week, though still remaining below the 7.02% rate from a year ago.

The content of this report has been created by XTB S.A., with its registered office in Warsaw, at Prosta 67, 00-838 Warsaw, Poland, (KRS number 0000217580) and supervised by Polish Supervision Authority ( No. DDM-M-4021-57-1/2005). This material is a marketing communication within the meaning of Art. 24 (3) of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU (MiFID II). Marketing communication is not an investment recommendation or information recommending or suggesting an investment strategy within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directives 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/958 of 9 March 2016 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards for the technical arrangements for objective presentation of investment recommendations or other information recommending or suggesting an investment strategy and for disclosure of particular interests or indications of conflicts of interest or any other advice, including in the area of investment advisory, within the meaning of the Trading in Financial Instruments Act of 29 July 2005 (i.e. Journal of Laws 2019, item 875, as amended). The marketing communication is prepared with the highest diligence, objectivity, presents the facts known to the author on the date of preparation and is devoid of any evaluation elements. The marketing communication is prepared without considering the client’s needs, his individual financial situation and does not present any investment strategy in any way. The marketing communication does not constitute an offer of sale, offering, subscription, invitation to purchase, advertisement or promotion of any financial instruments. XTB S.A. is not liable for any client’s actions or omissions, in particular for the acquisition or disposal of financial instruments, undertaken on the basis of the information contained in this marketing communication. In the event that the marketing communication contains any information about any results regarding the financial instruments indicated therein, these do not constitute any guarantee or forecast regarding the future results.

Share:
Back

Join over 1 600 000 XTB Group Clients from around the world.