Daily summary: Tech stock rally runs out of steam

European stocks finished today's session lower following a steep sell-off on Wall Street. Investors remain concerned  about region economic recovery after retail sales figures fell unexpectedly in July. Also surging numbers of new coronavirus infections also weighed on market sentiment. On the Brexit front EU's negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK must engage with EU demands on fair competition, fisheries and solving disputes in order to seal a deal. On the corporate front, two drugmaker's Sanofi and  GSK will start clinical trial for their potential coronavirus vaccine. DAX 30 dropped  1.6% , CAC 40 declined 0.7% and FTSE 100 finished 1.6% lower.

US indices fell sharply as tech stock rally lost strength, while elevated jobless claims and a slowdown in services sector raised worries regarding slow and prolonged economic recovery. The Challenger job cuts survey appeared to show a sharp drop in layoffs in August to 115,800 from over 262,000 in July. Initial and continuing jobless claims also posted their sharpest weekly drops in months, but remained at extraordinarily high levels. Today’s report also showed rising number of people requesting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which means that 29 million Americans are still claiming all forms of unemployment-related benefits as of the middle of August. Also recent drop was partially linked to changes in the seasonal adjustment methodology used by the Labor Department. The ISM non-manufacturing PMI fell by more than expected to 56.9, suggested the services sector recovery slowed in August.
During today's session Dow Jones fell 2.6% and the Nasdaq declined 4.7% and the S&P 500 is trading  3.3% lower.  Apple shares fell 7%. Facebook, Amazon and Netflix were all down at least 5%. Microsoft slipped 5.7%. Alphabet pulled back by 4.8%. Tesla stock declined  over 7%. 

 

Early in the session WTI crude futures dropped over 2.5% to trade below $40.5 a barrel on Thursday, not far from a one-month low touched earlier in the session, while Brent crude fell 2.7% to $43.2 per barrel, also close to its lowest in four weeks as fuel demand tumbled in the United States last week which offset a much larger than expected draw in crude oil inventories. However oil prices managed to partially erase some of the earlier losses in the afternoon. Currently WTI is trading around $41.17 per barrel and Brent price rose to $43.90 per barrel.
Spot gold traded 0.7% lower at $1,927 per ounce after posting its sharpest one-day decline since August 19th in the previous session, while silver dropped 3.0% to $26.66 per ounce.