Daily summary: Magnificent 7 drags on Wall Street, dollar regains strength, crypto sells off (18.02.2025)

Sentiment after the long weekend on Wall Street is clearly mixed. The S&P500 is trading flat – most of the companies in the index are recording gains, but today's result is weighed down by weak performance from the Magnificent 7 (META.US: -3.7%, AMZN.US: -2.1%, GOOGL.US: -1.2%, TSLA.US: -1.3%). The Nasdaq is turning around (-0.38%) after breaking out above the upper boundary of a consolidation that has been in place since December, the DJIA is down by 0.2%, and the Russell 2000 is the only one spending the session in the green (+0.32%).

Intel’s (INTC.US) stock is up more than 9.5% following reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Broadcom are considering separate transactions that could split the American chip giant into two entities.

European indices continue to extend their gains. The German DAX is up (+0.2%), the French CAC40 (+0.21%), the Italian FTSE MIB (+0.59%), the Spanish IBX35 (+0.98%), and the Swiss SMI (+0.15%). The British FTSE 100 recorded a minimal loss (-0.01%). 

The economic sentiment in Germany according to ZEW significantly improved in the last month (26, forecast: 20, previously: 10.3).

Inflation in Canada rebounded in January in line with expectations to 1.9% (previously: 1.8%).

On the FX market, the U.S. dollar is dominating today (USDIDX: +0.48%). The USD was most resisted today by the CAD (USDCAD: +0.01%), supported by the higher inflation reading in Canada, and the Australian dollar (AUDUSD: -0.11%) following hawkish comments from Michelle Bullock from the RBA in justification for today’s 25bp rate cut in Australia.

Cryptocurrencies are slipping today following comments by MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor to CNBC, where he expressed disappointment with institutional support for Bitcoin, which is down today to 93,800 (-2.73%). Ethereum is experiencing an even bigger correction (-5.27%), while smaller cryptocurrencies are declining amidst a scandal involving the President of Argentina, who promoted one of the coins on his social media.

Precious metals continue to gain due to geopolitical uncertainty. Gold has completely erased the recent correction and is back to 2,933 USD per ounce (+1.26%). Silver adds 1.53%, and platinum and palladium both rise by 0.15%.

Energy commodity contracts are also recording gains. NATGAS is up 10%, Brent is up 0.7%, and WTI is up 0.65%.