US indices finish the month in red
The S&P 500 lost its gains on Tuesday, maintaining course to end February with a loss because investors are still worried that the Fed will keep interest rates high for a long time. Even though Meta went up, tech lost some of its earlier gains. Tech is currently down 5% from its high point at the start of the month.
Meta Platforms went up more than 4%, adding to gains from the day before. The social media giant said it had developed an innovative product group to concentrate on developing generative AI tools to add to its products. The S&P 500 went down by 0.21%. Dow Jones went down by 0.65%, or 214 points, and the Nasdaq went down by 0.1%.
US dollar back on track
The US dollar got back its early losses and ended the day with a mixed performance across the Forex board. The fear of taking risks stayed the same and the greenback had room for a bounce back. The US dollar index rose 0.29%, erasing almost all losses from the previous day.
US dollar index 1D chart, source: tradingview.com
The focus was on rising prices in Spain and France, which were higher than expected. This led to more speculation that the ECB will keep tightening the monetary policy for a longer period than anticipated. Also, consumer confidence in the US dropped for the second month in a row in February, which hurt the Greenback. On the other hand, people’s expectations of inflation went down from the month before.
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EUR/USD reached its highest point of 1.0644, but it started to go down to close the month around 1.0590. The GBP/USD went up to 1.2143 after it was reported that the EU and the UK had reached an agreement on trade regulations in Northern Ireland.
This agreement, called the “Windsor Framework,” is meant to fix the problems caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol. Sterling retreated by the end of the US session and closed 0.26% in the red barely holding on to 1.2030.
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AUD/USD didn’t change much from day to day, and it trades at about 0.6730. Australia’s GDP for the fourth quarter will be released early on Wednesday. As a result of Canada’s GDP falling by 0.1% MoM in December, USD/CAD went up and is now close to the daily high of 1.3632. The country had no growth at all Q4 of 2022, which was much worse than the expected 1.5% growth.
Commodities scored a green month end
Copper futures managed to end the month on a high note, with more than 1% gain, with price above $4. Gold futures for April delivery acted as a safe haven and managed to bounce back above $1830 with a 0.5% gain. Silver futures for May is above $21 again with a green February end 1.13% up.
Brent, the UK’s crude, contracted for May also closed 1.13% in the green, marking the month’s end above $83. the US crude benchmark WTI, contracted for April, has concluded a 1.57% gain above $76.
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