Asia Mixed, European Indexes Slide; Crude Trades Under $78 - Global Markets Today While US Slept

On Thursday, May 30th, U.S. stock markets closed lower, led by a 1% drop in the Nasdaq and steep declines in tech shares after Salesforce issued a weak forecast.

According to economic data, the U.S.’s initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 219,000 last week, slightly above expectations. Economic growth slowed to 1.3% annually in Q1, down from 3.4% previously. The trade deficit widened to $99.41 billion in April from $92.29 billion in March.

The S&P 500 technology sector dropped significantly, becoming the main drag on the index, along with the communication services sector, and all other sectors ended higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.86% and closed at 38,111.48. The S&P 500 declined 0.60%, ending the day at 5,235.48, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.08%, finishing the session at 16,737.08.

Asian Markets Today

• On Friday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.27%, ending the session at 38,495.50, led by gains in the Paper & Pulp, Manufacturing, and Transportation Equipment sectors.
• Tokyo’s core CPI inflation in May, excluding volatile fresh food prices, rose to 1.9%, aligning with expectations and marking an increase from April’s 1.6%. Despite a marginal uptick in consumer spending, inflation remains below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, casting doubt on further interest rate hikes this year.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index closed higher by 0.96% at 7,701.70, led by gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Energy sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 was up 0.19% at 22,530.70, and the Nifty 500 closed higher by 0.31% at 21,103.30.
• China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.16%, ending the session at 3,086.81, and the Shenzhen CSI slid 0.40%, closing at 3,579.92.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended the session lower by 0.83% at 18,079.61.

Eurozone at 06:00 AM ET

• The European STOXX 50 index was down 0.03%.
• Germany’s DAX declined 0.30%.
• France’s CAC slid 0.12%.
• U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded higher by 0.28%.

Commodities at 06:00 AM ET

• Crude Oil WTI was trading higher by 0.08% at $77.98/bbl, and Brent was up 0.21% at $82.05 bbl.
• Natural Gas declined 0.86% to $2.550.
• Gold was trading lower by 0.10% at $2,364.20; Silver fell 0.34% to $31.422, while Copper was down 0.63% to $4.6295.

US Futures at 06:00 AM ET         

Dow futures were down 0.10%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.22%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures slid 0.36%.

Forex at 06:00 AM ET

The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.02% to 104.69, USD/JPY was up 0.29% at 157.27, and USD/AUD slid 0.21% to 1.5042.

Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock