05/01/2024
Today’s Announcements & News
Asia
China led declines in Asia-Pacific on Thursday, with the CSI 300 index falling 0.92%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng managed a modest 0.06% gain. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.53%, but the broader Topix closed 0.52% higher on the first trading day of 2024. Markets across Asia responded to global stocks following the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes, indicating potential interest rate cuts in 2024 without specifying the timing. South Korea’s Kospi ended down 0.78%, and the Kosdaq fell 0.61%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 retreated by 0.39%. Indian stocks, represented by the Nifty 50 index, stood out, adding 0.7% after two consecutive declines.
US
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded on Thursday, gaining 0.2% to recover from the previous day’s nearly 300-point decline. In contrast, the S&P 500 experienced a 0.1% slide, and the Nasdaq Composite dipped by 0.3%, continuing its over 1% loss from Wednesday. The start of the year has seen underperformance in mega-cap tech stocks like Apple, which has dropped over 5% this week. Concerns about stretched valuations and uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting timeline have contributed to investor caution. Despite the recent pullback, Steven Wieting, Citi Global Wealth’s chief investment strategist, doesn’t anticipate significant long-term repercussions for the market.
Commodity
Gold prices rebounded from a two-week low on Thursday, gaining less than 0.1% to reach $2,041.59 per ounce. This increase was attributed to a pullback in the dollar and heightened demand following better-than-expected payroll data. In contrast, oil prices experienced a decline, undoing earlier gains, as significant weekly builds in gasoline and distillate stocks outweighed a larger-than-anticipated crude stock draw. The West Texas Intermediate for February lost 51 cents, or 0.7%, settling at $72.19 a barrel, while the Brent contract for March shed 66 cents, or 0.84%, settling at $77.59 a barrel.
The above analysis is only for the views of market researchers and is for reference only and is not regarded as a specific investment suggestion.
