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US Stocks Rise After Opening Sharply Lower

After big moves higher and lower, USA stocks surged on Tuesday afternoon, raising hopes for an end to a global sell-off. Then the next day, called “Black Tuesday”, the Dow fell to 230 points, a loss of 11.7 percent. This will be creating opportunities for USA companies, assuming the anti-trade banter is simply a negotiating point. The Dow plunged more than 500 points at the open, adding to anxiety after Monday’s rout – the worst in nearly seven years.

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US stock indexes plunged at Tuesday’s open, rallied for solid gains and retreated again in the morning, but moved higher again in early afternoon trading after five days of selling in six sessions. The one-day drop of 1,175 points was one for the history books.

Sharp drops on Friday and Monday erased the gains the Dow and S&P 500 made this year. By Tuesday, it was once again slightly higher for 2018.

Among secondary indexes, the Philadelphia semiconductor index advanced 1.7%, while the Dow Jones utility average dropped 2.6%.

Share price falls this month have been linked to market fears that stocks are over-valued – equities having been the main source for investor cash since the financial crisis at a time of record low borrowing costs. Dips in stock value can at times be tied to this kind of computer-backed trading going haywire.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 567 points, or 2.3 percent, recouping almost half of the 1,175-point plunge it took the day before. Stocks swung between gains and losses no fewer than a dozen times before a late-session rally.

So far, the market pullback has drawn the Nasdaq down as much as 9% and the S&P 500 9.7% from prior highs.

A 10 per cent drop from a peak is often referred to as a “correction” while a bear market is generally defined as a 20 per cent or so drop in indexes.

“I think you’ve seen a normal market correction, although large”, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday at a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

However, he added that markets would need to deteriorate more significantly for him to start to worry about the broader economy.

The market had closed down 1.7 per cent on Monday, hitting its lowest level since mid-September.

In response to that, investors moved to sell out of stocks and put money into assets like bonds which benefit from higher interest rates.

CNNMoney’s Fear & Greed Index is flashing “fear”, underlining a major shift in market sentiment from a week ago when it was sitting in “extreme greed”.

But a key United States jobs report on Friday, showing better-than-expected wage data, spooked sentiment because it raised the prospect of the United States central bank raising interest rates at a faster pace to cool inflation.

“The fact is that the economy seems to be heating up”, said Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen.

US stocks shot higher in afternoon trading as the market looks to recover from its biggest loss in 6 ½ years.

“People were positioned for more central bank easing or continued central bank easing, low rates, and importantly, low volatility”, he said. The combination of economic growth in the US and other major economies, low interest rates, and support from central banks meant stocks could keep rising steadily without a lot of bumps along the way.

The constant rise in USA share values since 2009 has been fuelled by the extraordinary easy-money policies of the world’s major central banks, and most recently by President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, promises of corporate deregulation and infrastructure spending.

Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 1.5 percent while France’s CAC 40 slid 1.5 percent.

Fidelity International portfolio manager Kate Howitt said there had been a shift where signs of strength now anxious investors. HSI dropped 5.1 percent and Japan’s Nikkei . South Korea’s Kospi had declined 1.5 percent. FTEU3 lost 2.50 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe . The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 56.18 points, or 3.6 percent, for 1,491.09.

The dollar fell to 109.70 yen from 110.28 yen.

Fiserv Inc (NASDAQ: FISV) has grabbed attention from the analysts when it experienced a change of -1.36% in the current trading session to trade at $128.34.

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European shares closed down more than 2 percent, and losses for MSCI’s widely tracked 47-country world index broke $4 trillion, with shares in emerging markets down sharply.

UPDATE: Dow rises 350, erasing an early plunge