News & Analysis

Overnight on Wall Street: Thursday 19 November 2020

November 18, 2020

By Deepta Bolaky
 @DeeptaGOMarkets

Equity Markets

Global equities ended on a mixed note on Wednesday driven by vaccines news and concerns of rising virus cases. European bourses posted modest gains on the back of more positive vaccines updates from Moderna. 

In the US share market, major US equities struggled to advance higher as the stimulus gridlock and the rapid surge of the coronavirus outbreak in the US forcing more localised lockdowns and social distancing measures dampened risk sentiment. 

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 345 points or 1.2% to 29,438.
  • S&P 500 fell by 42 points or 1.2% to 3,568. 
  • Nasdaq Composite dropped by 98 points or 0.8% to 11,802.

Tesla continues its surge by closing 10.2% higher on Wednesday at $486.64 following its earlier announcement on its debut on the S&P 500 while tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft underperformed with losses above 1%.

Currency Markets 

In the FX space, the price action of major pairs reflects the uncertainty in the markets as traders balanced the positive vaccine updates against the resurgence of the virus. Major currencies were mixed against the US dollar amid a lack of decisive catalysts in the markets. 

On the economic front, attention was on the inflation data in the UK, Eurozone and Canada together with housing data in the US:

Inflation Data
  • United Kingdom: The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) 12-month rate was 0.7% in October 2020, up from 0.5% in September.
  • Eurozone: the annual inflation stable at -0.3%in the euro area compared to September. 
  • Canada: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.7% on a year-over-year basis in October, up from a 0.5% increase in September, led by higher prices for food. 
Housing Data

Building Permits: Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,545,000 but above the October 2019 rate of 1,503,000.

Housing Starts: Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,530,000. This is 4.9 percent above the revised September estimate of 1,459,000 and is 14.2 percent above the October 2019 rate of 1,340,000. 

Commodities

Crude oil prices traded within familiar levels on Wednesday supported by vaccines updates and mixed weekly reports. After a bearish API report where crude oil inventories rose by a much larger-than-expected level, the EIA reported an inventory level below forecasts. The build in inventory was more modest at 0.768M barrels compared to the 1.65M barrels expected. As of writing, WTI Crude oil (Nymex) and Brent Crude (ICE) were trading at around $41.82 and $44.20 respectively. 

Gold

The precious metal continues to remain underpinned by the recent positive vaccine news and the gridlock in Washington despite the concerns on the virus front.  As of writing, the XAUUSD pair was trading around $1,872. 


Source: GO MT4

By Deepta Bolaky
 @DeeptaGOMarkets

Key upcoming events

  • EU Leaders Summit (Eurozone)
  • Full time Employment, Employment Change and Unemployment Rate (Australia)
  • Industrial Production (Switzerland)
  • Jobless Claims, Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey, and Existing Home Sales (US)
Friday, 20 November 2020 
Indicative Index Dividends
Dividends are in Points
ASX200 WS30 US500 US2000 NDX100 CAC40 STOXX50
0.157 0 0.032 0.076 0 0 0
ESP35 ITA40 FTSE100 DAX30 HK50 JP225 INDIA50
0 0 0 0 0 0


Disclaimer:  The articles are from GO Markets analysts,  based on their independent analysis or personal experiences. Views or opinions or trading styles expressed are of their own;  should not be taken as either representative of or shared by GO Markets.  Advice (if any),  are of a ‘general’ nature and not based on your personal objectives, financial situation or needs.  You should therefore consider how appropriate the advice (if any) is to your objectives, financial situation and needs, before acting on the advice.  If the advice relates to acquiring a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Financial Services Guide (FSG) for that product before making any decisions.

Next:
Previous: