The S&P 500 declined on Thursday, erasing earlier gains. This was caused by a continued decline in Alphabet and new economic warnings from the bond market which dampened investor optimism.
The S&P 500 sank 0.9%, while the Dow Jones slid 0.7%, and the Nasdaq fell 1%. Alphabet extended the drop by another 4.4% after the disastrous presentation of Google’s AI chatbot – Bard. PepsiCo Inc jumped 0.67% as the company posted better-than-expected earnings. Ralph Lauren rose 1.01% as quarterly sales surpassed estimates as well.
You may also like: Tether made $700 million in Q4 and you still think crypto is dead?
Salesforce gained 2.31% on rumours that Third Point LLC acquired a stake in the firm. Walt Disney had a turbulent day today. The stock jumped after earnings and lay-offs were announced, however, the rally quickly ended and the company posted a red close with a 1.3% decline.
Dollar acted as safe haven
The US dollar gained upward impetus ahead of Wall Street’s opening. The greenback increased its climb at the end of the day when US indices fell ahead of the closure. The EUR/USD reached 1.0800 but retreated to the level 1.0740 and finally closed only 0.23%. GBP/USD reached a high of 1.2191, but is presently trading around 1.2120.
More to read: Can ChatGPT help Microsoft’s Bing beat Google?
The Pound was supported by the Monetary Policy Report Hearings of the Bank of England (BoE). The UK Treasury Select Committee heard testimony from Governor Andrew Bailey, chief economist Huw Pill, and policymaker Jonathan Haskel.
They predicted that inflation would “drop down sharply this year.” Later in the day though, policymaker Silvana Tenreyro stated, that in her opinion, rates are already too high and a severe recession would be required to reduce inflation to 2%. She concluded by saying rate cuts are not out of the question.
Commodities gave back gains
On Thursday, the fundamentals-defying surge in oil prices came to an end. Last week, the US petroleum complex amassed substantial stockpiles. However, a decline in the dollar prevented a further selloff in crude contracts.
WTI crude futures for March delivery closed 41 cents, or 0.5%, down at $78.06 a barrel. Brent crude futures for delivery in March closed Thursday’s session 92 cents lower, or 1%, down at $84.20.
Gold futures for April delivery slipped back almost 1% as traders moved more of their buying power into the US dollar. The close was at $1875. Silver futures for March delivery dropped double the golds decline by 2% to $21.988.
Comments
Post has no comment yet.