• European equities lower amid Brexit and COVID-10 concerns
• US stocks hit 4-week low as tech sell-off continues
• Oil prices plunged over 8%
European stocks finished today's session lower as the tech shares remained under pressure due to valuation concerns. Also rising number of new COVID-19 cases and Brexit worries weighed on market sentiment. Germany reported the highest rate of new infections since April. Meanwhile total number of cases in Spain surpassed 525k. Britain warned that is accelerating preparations to leave the European Union without a deal as both sides cannot reach an agreement over rules that govern nearly $1 trillion in trade. Meanwhile the head of the UK’s government’s legal department Sir Jones resigned due to disputes with the attorney general over plans to override parts of the deal on Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Barnier warned Prime Minister Johnson, that if he remains in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement there will not be future free trade agreement. Meanwhile recent figures showed the Euro Area economy declined by a record 11.8%, slightly below analysts' expectations of 12.1% fall. During today's session DAX 30 dropped 1%, CAC 40 fell 1.4% and FTSE100 finished 0.1% lower.
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Create account Try a demo Download mobile app Download mobile appUS stocks are also trading lower as traders return from the Labor Day holiday. The Dow Jones fell over 1.5 %, S&P 500 dropped 1.9% and the Nasdaq plunged near 4% as the tech sell-off continues. Tesla shares lost near 15% after the company was not included in S&P 500 index. Other tech giants including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Netflix were under pressure once again as traders took profits from this year’s biggest advancers. General Motors stock rose 8.7% after it acquired an 11% stake, worth $2 billion, in U.S. electric-truck maker Nikola Corp. The electric truck maker's stock surged 37%. Meanwhile,President Trump said that he is considering decoupling the US economy from China which additionally worsened investors' moods.
WTI crude futures fell over 8% to trade around $36.4 a barrel and Brent dropped over 7% as the surging number of new COVID-19 cases raise concerns regarding the fuel demand recovery. Also worries about the upcoming maintenance season in US refineries put additional pressure on the price, as the demand could drop by around 1.5 million barrels per day.
Early in the session gold prices dropped to $1,907 an ounce, the lowest since August 27th, amid stronger dollar. Silver price fell below $26 level, tracking gold prices. However precious metals managed to partially erase early losses in the afternoon. Gold jumped above $1936 an ounce while price of silver rose to $26.77 an ounce.
AUDUSD – currency pair broke below the major support at 0.7242 during today’s session. As long as the price sits below, further downward movement is possible. In such a scenario, 0.7133 handle will be the first target for market bears. However, if buyers will manage to push the price above the 0.7242 level, then another upward impulse could be launched. Source: xStation5
