• European equities extended yesterday losses
• US stocks plunge as tech sell-off continues
• US jobless rate drops more than expected
• US stocks plunge as tech sell-off continues
• US jobless rate drops more than expected
European equities finished final session of the week lower, tracking Wall Street as the tech sell-off continued. Also, recent PMI data showed mixed picture of the Eurozone's construction sector. Figures for Germany showed the construction sector shrank for the 6th month and factory orders rose much less than expected, while in Italy construction sector increased for the fourth month in a row. Also rising number of new coronavirus cases weighed on market sentiment. Spain reported 8,959 new infections and UK recorded 1,940 new cases on Friday, the highest since end of May. On the political front, the EU is considering fresh sanctions on Russia following the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. During today's session DAX 30 fell over 1%, while both CAC 40 and FTSE 100 finished 0.9% lower. For the week, the DAX dropped 1.8%, CAC 40 declined 0.8%, FTSE 100 lost 2.8%.
US indices extended declines on Friday, with the Nasdaq on track for its worst two-day fall since March as the tech sell-off continues. Today there are reports of SoftBank, which was allegedly "moving" the Nasdaq index. The Japanese financial conglomerate was supposed to buy call options in a move that stoked the fevered rally in big tech stocks before a sharp pullback on Thursday. The increase in the value of the call option positions, which was observed in recent weeks, was a high-profile topic and many companies (such as Tesla or Apple) enjoyed great interest from investors, and hence a huge increase in the share price.
Also mixed data from the US labour market weighed on investors moods. Unemployment rate fell to 8.4%, well below analysts' expectations of 9.8% while the economy added 1.371 million jobs, compared to forecasts of 1.4 million. However the number of people in the U.S. seeing permanent job losses rose by about half a million to 3.4 million, the highest level since 2013. Wall Street is set to finish the week lower after a near 3% increase in the previous week. US markets will be closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
Oil is trading lower today. Brent crude futures dropped more than 3.5% while WTI Oil plunged over 4% amid a stronger dollar and oversupply concerns. For the week both WTI and Brent are on track to record their biggest weekly declines since June. Precious metals are holding reasonably stable compare to the other markets. Gold prices fell 0.3% and touched an over one-week low of $1,916 an ounce. Silver futures reversed early gains and are trading 0.43% lower.
NZDUSD – recently pair broke below and retested the major support at 0.6714. Should downbeat moods prevail, next support at 0.6603 may come into play. This level is additionally strengthened by 50 MA (green line). Source:xStation5
