The panic sentiments in the Asian session, and further downward pressure in Europe, has investors across the Atlantic feeling uncertainty; some are choosing to sell assets before Wall Street opens, sending Nasdaq 100 futures (US100) almost -4.5% lower. Concerns about a recession, with treasuries yields still historically high and stocks from the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 highly valued, are putting pressure to realize gains and retreat from Wall Street. High expectations for companies' revenue, profit and margin growth in the second half of the year are being revised downward as US data signal a serious and unexpected cooling of the labour market and increasingly weakening economic conditions. 

Nvidia (NVDA.US) shares are losing nearly -9% today before the U.S. open, as The Information sources signal serious delays in Blackwell AI GPUs shipments, which may start not in this year, but at the beginning of 2025. Investors see this as an additional uncertainty, seeing higher chances for 2025 to be a year of the economic slowdown. Pressure is also accelerating among other software and hardware companies, including Arista Networks (-6%). Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL.US) and Microsoft (MSFT.US) are losing 5% and 4%, respectively, before the opening of the US stock market.  Pressure is constantly evident among BigTech stocks, which investors have been eager to accumulate, in recent quarters.

The markets are concerned that the stocks are still overvalued, as their valuations assumed a soft landing for the economy and continued robust business improvement in the months ahead. Investors see odds of more than 120 bps of Fed rate cuts in 2024 and see a near 90% probability of a 50 bps cut in September and a 60% chance of a 25 bps policy easing, later this week. Volatility may increase today during the ISM reading of the U.S. services sector, for July (16:00). If the data yields a big negative disappointment, markets may 'reassure' that the economy is slowing down, while the Fed has not yet started easing monetary policy. Nvidia will not report Q2 results until August 28.

US100 (H1 interval)

Futures on the Nasdaq 100 (US100) are trading with a sizable sell-off of nearly 4.5% today, retreating below 18,000 points. Declining volume prevails.

Source: xStation5

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