Darren Sinden from educational provider Trade Uni discusses the latest market moves.

Yesterday was an uninspiring session for the S&P 500, with the index adding just 0.16% and finishing mid-range on the day. The Nasdaq 100 was more demonstrative, adding 1%, buoyed by solid gains in communications services and information technology names, the only sector groupings to finish up on the day. These names include News Corp, up 3.22%, Meta Platforms which added 2.62% and Alphabet which added 1.7%. Alphabet reported earnings after the close and the pre-release optimism was justified, as the stock beat forecasts with its advertising revenue rising by 10% and cloud computing revenues growing by 35%. The stock added another 5.8% after hours on that news.

The market wasn't so kind to Advanced Micro Devices, which also reported after the close. Its earnings and guidance were in line with, but no better than, expectations, and its share price fell 7%. There was also a miss at casino operator Caesars Entertainment, which fell 5.32% in stark contrast to its 24% gain over the last quarter. Expectations of interest rate cuts in the US have boosted consumer discretionary stocks, in the belief that US consumers would have more disposable income to spend.

Turning to the regular European session on Tuesday, there were no gainers at an index level. The biggest fallers were the Midcap Dax, down 1%, and the Swiss SMI which fell by 1.1%. The latter was led lower by a 4% drop in drugmaker Novartis yesterday on disappointing revenues from its prostate cancer treatment, Pluvicto, which came well below forecast thanks to a price cut in Europe. Although Novartis upped its guidance for the year, the market wasn’t receptive to good news. 

Gainers were thin on the ground among European equities on Tuesday. However, Adidas bucked the trend, rallying by 3.8%. Its compatriot Volkswagen was the biggest faller among Euro Stoxx 50 constituents, down by 3.2% in a move that takes its year-to-date losses to more than 20%. Renault is the only vehicle manufacturer in the European autos sector up on the year to date, outperforming everything but Rheinmetall by a considerable margin, with its price up 15.9% year-to-date. For comparison, US rival Ford is down by 14.6% over 2024, and General Motors is up by almost 44%.

Crude oil rallied again this morning in early trade, with Brent up by 0.7% and WTI by 0.76%. Gold and silver diverged this morning; gold is higher by 0.26%, but silver fell by 1% on the European open. US 10-year treasury bond yields are lower this morning at just over 4.25%, well below their recent peak of 4.33%. The dollar index is modestly lower this morning at 104.22. EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY are broadly unchanged.


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