Global shares prices plunged further from five-month highs yesterday due to growing concerns surrounding Sino-U.S. tensions, in spite of positive macros coming from Europe recently.
“An escalation in U.S.-China tensions that could have hugely negative consequences on stock market leadership, particularly around the US tech giants, is worrying,” said International markets analysis and insights from Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at AxiCorp.
“Even more so, if President Trump pulls the free pass into China and things could turn quite ugly into the weekend as traders will have no option but pare risk,” Innes added.
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America’s S&P 500 index broke its three-week winning streak yesterday as rising U.S. and China tensions, and a stumble in tech and health care weighed on sentiments.
The S&P 500 lost 0.62%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.94% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 0.68%.
Quick fact: The NYSE, commonly referred to as the New York Stock Exchange, is the biggest stock exchange in the world, with a market capitalization of over $25 trillion as at April 2020. The following three exchanges are the NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange, and Tokyo Stock Exchange. However, their combined market capitalization size was still lower than the NYSE.
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Not surprising, China’s blue-chip stocks led the bears, with losses standing at 4.4%, wiping out a week of gains.
European shares were on course for their worst day in a month, with the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 down 1.9%.
In addition, global investors took little excitement in Europe’s impressive (PMI) data. The report showed that euro zone business activities bounced back to growth in July in spite of the resurgence in COVID-19 cases across the globe.
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Technology stocks led losses, following their U.S. peers overnight, while the China-sensitive basic materials sector lost 2.4%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 1.9%. Tokyo was closed for public holiday celebration; still, the Nikkei futures were trading 1% lower. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 also lost about 0.8%.
