Asia Mixed, Europe Up; Dollar Index Steady While Oil Ticks Higher - Global Markets Today While US Slept

On Thursday, Oct. 25, U.S. markets closed mixed. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 gained on Tesla’s surge and optimistic earnings forecast, adding $140 billion to its market cap.

Despite easing Treasury yields, sentiment remained cautious as other sectors declined on mixed corporate results.

According to the economic data, U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 15,000 to 227,000 for the week ending Oct. 19, below the expected 242,000. October’s S&P Global flash manufacturing PMI rose to 47.8, while services PMI increased to 55.3.

The S&P 500’s sectors closed largely negative, with materials, industrials, and utilities seeing the biggest losses. However, consumer discretionary and communication services stocks defied the trend, closing higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.33% to close at 42,374.36, the S&P 500 gained 0.21% to 5,809.86, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.76% to finish at 18,415.49.

Asia Markets Today

• On Friday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed lower by 0.76% at 37,889.00, led by losses in the Power, Paper & Pulp, and Communication sectors.
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.06% and ended the day at 8,211.30, led by gains in the IT, Healthcare and Metals & Mining sectors.
• India’s Nifty 50 traded lower by 0.77% at 24,207.00 and Nifty 500 was down 1.16% at 22,523.50.
• China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.59% to close at 3,299.70, and the Shenzhen CSI 300 gained 0.70%, finishing the day at 3,956.42.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.49% and closed the session at 20,590.15.

Eurozone at 06.00 AM ET

• The European STOXX 50 index was up 0.11%.
• Germany’s DAX gained 0.11%.
• France’s CAC fell 0.03%.
• U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded higher by 0.07%.

Commodities at 06.00 AM ET

• Crude Oil WTI was trading higher by 0.47% at $70.53/bbl, and Brent was up 0.47% at $74.72/bbl.
• Natural Gas fell 0.44% at $2.511.
• Gold was trading lower by 0.54% at $2,733.85, Silver declined 1.27% to $33.370, and Copper slid 0.28% to $4.3390.

US Futures at 06.00 AM ET

Dow futures were up 0.19%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.24%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures increased 0.27%.

Forex at 06.00 AM ET

The U.S. Dollar Index slid 0.01% to 104.06, USD/JPY was up 0.10% at 151.97, and USD/AUD gained 0.15% to 1.5082.

Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock