Asia Down, Europe Markets Advance; Dollar Retreats While Gold Holds Above $2,400 - Global Markets Today While US Slept

On Friday, July 19th, U.S. stock markets closed lower, with the Dow Jones experiencing the most considerable decline. U.S. stocks fell due to a global tech outage caused by a glitch in Crowdstrike’s CRWD software, affecting Microsoft’s Windows system and disrupting multiple industries.

In economic data, Baker Hughes reported that the total number of active oil rigs in the U.S. decreased by one this week, bringing the count to 477 rigs.

Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, energy shares experienced the largest decline, while healthcare and utilities were the only sectors to post gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.93% and closed at 40,287.53. The S&P 500 declined 0.71%, ending the day at 5,505.00, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.81%, finishing the session at 17,726.94.

Related: Crowdstrike’s Faulty Microsoft Windows Update Gets Slammed By US Cybersecurity Official: ‘Was A Huge Deal…’

Asian Markets Today

• On Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed lower by 1.28%, ending the session at 39,579.00. Losses in the Mining, Transport, and Power sectors led the decline.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.50%,, ending the day at 7,931.70, led by losses in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 fell 0.09% to 24,509.25, and Nifty 500 went up 0.39%, closing at 22,942.65.
• China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.61%, ending the session at 2,964.22, and the Shenzhen CSI slid 0.68%, closing at 3,514.92.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended the session higher by 1.25% at 17,635.88.
• Global shares steadied Monday after President Biden exited the election race and endorsed current Vice President Kamala Harris. Asian markets didn’t respond to China’s rate cut.

Eurozone at 06:00 AM ET

• The European STOXX 50 index gained 1.38%.
• Germany’s DAX rose 1.29%.
• France’s CAC was up 1.27%.
• U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded higher by 0.78%.

Commodities at 06:00 AM ET

• Crude Oil WTI was trading lower by 0.20% at $78.48/bbl, and Brent was down 0.19% at $82.47 bbl.
• Natural Gas gained 2.59% to $2.221.
• Gold was trading higher by 0.33% at $2,407.10, Silver rose 0.05% to $29.317, and Copper slid 0.40% to $4.2197.

US Futures at 06:00 AM ET

Dow futures were up 0.17%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.46%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.72%.

Forex at 06:00 AM ET

The U.S. dollar index declined 0.14% to 104.25, the USD/JPY was down 0.55% to 156.63, and the USD/AUD gained 0.46% to 1.5012.

The dollar eased slightly against a basket of currencies and dropped sharply versus the yen as investors reacted to Biden ending his re-election campaign.

Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock