Closing Report 17.08.2021

MARKETS HIT BY COVID-19 FEARS

 

AMERICAN MARKETS MID DAY

Us major stocks are moving in the red zone as retail sales declined worse-than-expected 1.1% in July as rising COVID-19 fears hit consumers. Meanwhile, Home Depot is plunging by -4.54% after annoucing  that its net sales increased by 8.1% year on year to reach a quarterly record-setting $41.1 billion in the second trimester of fiscal 2021. Walmart shares inched higher, then traded near the flatline after second-quarter earnings topped estimates. The US 10 Year-Bond slipped by -0.82% to settle at 1.247%.

EUROPEAN MARKETS CLOSING

European stock markets traded mostly lower today as fears upon COVID-19 increase, while the drop in oil prices made gas and fuel-related shares into the red zone. On the data front, the Eurozone’s GDP grew by 2% in the second quarter of the year and the employment figure rose rose by 0.5% and 0.3% in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Britain is launching a plan to ramp up ‘low carbon’ hydrogen capacity and is targeting 5 gigawatts of “low carbon hydrogen production capacity” by the year 2030. The FTSE 100 took 0.38% driven by Bhp Group surging by 3.40%.

ASIAN PACIFIC MARKETS CLOSING

Asia-Pacific region closed downwards as fears on COVID-19 are rising after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warned of a “high level of uncertainty” brought by the emergence of the coronavirus’ Delta variant, the announcement making tank the Australian index by 1.49%. Elsewhere in China, Monday’s disappointing industrial production and retail sales data, as well as the ongoing regulatory tightening in various sectors, continue to remain on investors’ radars.

COMMODITIES & FOREX MARKETS

Oil prices weakened for a fourth session on Tuesday, on the back of surging cases of coronavirus in Japan and a weak demand picture in Asia, and as OPEC and its allies believe the market does not need more crude.

Bitpanda, a European cryptocurrency trading platform, has raised $263 million in a fresh round of funding valuing the company at $4.1 billion.

The ONS published UK payrolls back to pre-pandemic levels 

The number of employees on British company payrolls rose by 182,000 in July from June, moving closer to their pre-pandemic level as the economy recovers from its coronavirus lockdowns, tax data showed on Tuesday. The Office for National Statistics said 28.9 million people were now on company payrolls, 201,000 shy of their level before the Covid-19 pandemic swept Britain in March 2020. The headline unemployment rate for the three months to June fell to 4.7%.
Britain’s labor market has been propped up by finance minister Rishi Sunak’s job subsidies which paid the wages on 8.9 million jobs at its peak in May 2020, during the first Covid-19 lockdown, falling to 1.9 million jobs at the end of June 2021.