Asia And Europe Markets Dip, Crude Oil Nears $71 - Global Markets Today While US Was Sleeping

On Tuesday, January 16th, U.S. stock markets closed lower, influenced by mixed results from Morgan Stanley MS and Goldman Sachs GS impacting banking stocks, along with declines in Boeing Co BA and Apple Inc AAPL affecting the S&P 500.

Related: Morgan Stanley Reports Q4 Results, Joins Boeing, Alcoa, And Other Big Stocks Moving Lower On Tuesday

In economic data, the NY Empire State Manufacturing Index dropped to -43.7 in January, its lowest since May 2020. 

The S&P 500 mostly closed lower, with energy and materials sectors leading the fall, while information technology stocks ended higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.62%, closing at 37,361.12. In contrast, the S&P 500 dropped 0.37% to 4,765.98, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.19%, ending the session at 14,944.35.

Asian Markets Today

• On Wednesday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed the session lower by 0.32% at 35,477.75, led by losses in the Transportation Equipment, Marine Transport, and Textile sectors.
• Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.29%, ending at 7,393.10, led by losses in the Gold, Energy and Resources sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 closed lower by 2.09% at 21,571.95, and the Nifty 500 slid 1.71% to 19,487.60. 
• China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 2.09% to 2,833.62, while the Shenzhen CSI 300 decreased 2.18%, closing at 3,229.08.
• China’s economy saw a 5.2% expansion in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year. Industrial output in December expanded 6.8% year-over-year, exceeding the forecast of 6.6% and matching the November figure. Retail sales in December +7.4% year-over-year, below the forecasted 8.0%, marked a decrease from the 10.1% observed in November.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 4.04%, concluding the day at 15,241.00. 
• The Hang Seng Index saw a significant downturn, mainly due to steep losses in the technology and financial sectors. Major financial stocks like China Ping An Insurance and HSBC Holdings HSBC fell by 1.78% and 1.84%, highlighting the Hong Kong stock market’s vulnerability to investor sentiment and broader economic conditions, especially in the technology and financial sectors.

Eurozone at 06:00 AM ET

• The European STOXX 600 index was down 1.27%.
•  Germany’s DAX slipped 1.05%.
•  France’s CAC declined by 1.23%.
•  The UK’s FTSE 100 traded lower by 1.57%.
•  European stocks were impacted by hawkish comments from ECB officials dampening hopes for interest rate cuts and pessimistic economic data from China exacerbating investor concerns.

Commodities at 06:00 AM ET

• Crude Oil WTI was trading lower by 2.14% at $70.99/bbl, and Brent was down 1.93% at $76.78/bbl.
• Natural Gas declined 3.07% to $2.811.
• Gold was trading lower by 0.10% at $2,028.10, Silver slid by 0.57% to $22.962, while Copper was down by 0.41% to $3.7510.

US Futures at 06:00 AM ET

Dow futures were down 0.41%, S&P 500 futures declined 0.45%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.55%.

Forex at 06:00 AM ET

The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.04% to 103.40, USD/JPY increased 0.39% to 147.75, and AUD/USD gained 0.43% to 1.5257.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash