Asia Ex-China And Europe Markets Rise; Gold Falls And Dollar Gains Amid Easing Middle East Conflict Fears - Global Markets Today While US Slept

On Friday, April 19th, the U.S. stock markets closed mixed, influenced by a decrease in Netflix NFLX shares, although American Express AXP provided support to the Dow following their respective earnings announcements. Additionally, market mood was affected by skepticism regarding a forthcoming rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Netflix’s Q1 earnings, revenue, and subscriber count exceeded forecasts, but it warned of a potential Q2 subscriber dip due to seasonality and issued lower-than-expected revenue guidance, though its EPS outlook was higher than anticipated.

In economic data, Baker Hughes Inc. reported that the total count of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 5 to 511 this week.

Most S&P 500 sectors ended higher, led by gains in financial, utilities, and energy stocks, while information technology and communication services sectors fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.56% to close at 37,986.40. The S&P 500 slid 0.88%, ending the day at 4,967.23, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.05%, finishing the session at 15,282.01.

Asia Markets Today

• On Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index ended the trading day higher by 0.99% at 37,459.50, led by gains in the Mining, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic and Warehousing sectors.
• In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.08% to finish at 7,649.20, led by gains in the Healthcare, Telecoms Services and IT sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 closed higher by 0.86% at 22,336.40, and the Nifty 500 rose 0.93%, closing at 20,574.85.
• China’s Shanghai Composite slid 0.67% to end the session at 3,044.60, and the Shenzhen CSI 300 fell 0.30%, closing at 3,530.90.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.77%, concluding the day at 16,511.69.

Eurozone at 06:15 AM ET

• The European STOXX 50 index was up 0.47%.
• Germany’s DAX gained 0.66%.
• France’s CAC increased 0.32%.
• U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded higher by 1.46%.

Commodities at 06:15 AM ET

Crude Oil WTI was trading lower by 0.67% at $81.67/bbl, and Brent was down 0.63% at $86.75 bbl.

Oil prices dropped on Monday, shifting focus to market fundamentals as Israel and Iran downplayed escalation risks after Israel’s limited strike on Iran.

Natural Gas was down 0.60% at $1.976.

Gold was trading lower by 1.66% at $2,373.75, Silver declined 3.33% to $27.883, while Copper was up 0.61% at $4.5245.

US Futures at 06:15 AM ET       

Dow futures were up 0.48%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.59%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 0.73%.

Forex at 06:15 AM ET

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.03% to 106.19, the USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 154.74, and the USD/AUD declined 0.38% to 1.5531.

Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock