Selling pressure on key techs stocks ahead of their quarterly reports weighed on market sentiment overnight. A Congressional anti-trust hearing into the tech giant’s activities raised concerns among investors. Bonds rallied and the US dollar rose for the first time in 7 trading sessions. Increasing nervousness lifted the Japanese yen, and precious metals are in traders’ sights after record highs for gold and a wild 24 hours in silver markets.
Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Netflix all dropped, dragging the Nasdaq index 1.3% lower. It appeared investors locked in gains ahead of key risk events in the sector. The anti-trust probe is a long term threat to earnings, and the elevated share prices are vulnerable to any missteps in quarterly reports from 4 of the behemoths over the rest of this week.
Silver prices gyrated through a 16% range over the global session, finishing US trading where they started. This market action formed a “doji” candlestick on charts, an indicator of a fierce battle between bulls and bears. Traders anticipate further bouts of higher volatility in precious metals.
The search for safe haven contributed to stronger support for cryptocurrencies, as did a hard fork in Cardano. CMC’s Major Crypto Index climbed more than 26% over the last week.
Asia Pacific futures suggest a negative starts for shares across the region. Hong Kong’s GDP is tipped to fall 8.2% when data is released today, and core inflation in Australia is expected to flat-line in the second calendar quarter of the year. Markets are pricing no change in the US Federal Reserve’s “whatever it takes stance” tonight, but the event risk could bring some caution to today’s trading session.
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