Asia Markets Mostly Higher As China Shines, Europe Dips, Crude Oil Touches $76 - Global Markets Today While US Was Sleeping

On Wednesday, January 24th, U.S. stock markets closed mixed, with the S&P 500 reaching its fourth consecutive record-breaking close.

Netflix (NFLX) surged 10.7% to reach a two-year high, driven by significant subscriber growth and heightened investor confidence stemming from its effective strategy against password-sharing and an impressive array of content, contributing to an uptick in the S&P 500 index.

Economic data showed a rise in the S&P Global U.S. services PMI to a seven-month high of 52.9 and a jump in manufacturing PMI to 50.3 in January, while the composite PMI rose to 52.3 from 50.9 in the previous month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.26%, closing at 37,806.39, the S&P 500 rose 0.08% to 4,868.55, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.36%, ending the session at 15,481.92.

Asian Markets Today

• On Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed the session higher by 0.02% at 36,236.47, led by gains in the Banking, Mining and Insurance sectors.
• Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.48% and closed at 7,555.40, led by gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources, and Materials sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 closed lower by 0.47% at 21,352.60, and the Nifty 500 slid 0.30% to 19,393.00. 
• China’s Shanghai Composite increased 3.03% to 2,906.11, while the Shenzhen CSI 300 gained 2.01%, closing at 3,342.92.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.72%, concluding the day at 16,172.75.
• China’s stock indexes saw an extended rebound after the People’s Bank of China unexpectedly cut the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points, releasing $140 billion in liquidity and easing lending rules for the property sector to support economic growth.

Eurozone at 06:00 AM ET

• The European STOXX 600 index was down 0.33%.
• Germany’s DAX declined 0.34%.
• France’s CAC slid 0.40%.
• The UK’s FTSE 100 traded lower by 0.19%.

Commodities at 06:00 AM ET

• Crude Oil WTI was trading higher by 1.28% at $76.05/bbl, and Brent was up 1.16% at $80.96/bbl.
• Natural Gas gained 2.61% to $2.231.
• Gold was trading up by 0.12% at $2,018.35, Silver rose by 0.51% to $23.008, while Copper climbed 0.11% to $3.8902.

US Futures at 06:00 AM ET       

Dow futures were up 0.23%, S&P 500 futures increased 0.04%, while Nasdaq 100 Futures slid 0.05%.

Forex at 06:00 AM ET

The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.03% to 103.20, USD/JPY gained 0.08% to 147.62, and AUD/USD fell 0.18% to 1.5176.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash