NEW YORK/LONDON :MSCI’s global equities index edged up on Tuesday as investors took a breath after Monday’s strong gains in anticipation of an end to the U.S. government shutdown, while high technology valuations tempered enthusiasm.
The dollar dipped on concerns about weakness in the U.S. labor market after a report showed private employers cutting jobs.
The U.S. Senate passed a deal on Monday that would restore federal funding after the longest shutdown on record, which has disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid, snarled air traffic and delayed the release of government economic data.
The deal still needs approval from the House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wants a vote as soon as Wednesday, before being sent to President Donald Trump to sign into law. But in anticipation of a reopening, the market rallied on Monday, with the S&P 500 registering its biggest one-day percentage gain since mid-October, while the Nasdaq notched its largest daily gain since May.
‘ONGOING VOLATILITY’
“This is a settling out after a relief rally on Monday for what appears to be an end to the shutdown,” said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede.
After a 2.8 per cent rally on Monday in a basket of the biggest U.S. stocks linked to a boom in artificial intelligence, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF fell more than 1 per cent on Tuesday and weighed on the market. The biggest drag came from Nvidia after Japan’s SoftBank Group said it had sold its entire stake in the AI chip leader in October.
“The market and these companies are making a very large bet on the outcome of AI. Those revenues are not certain in the next one or two years. Because there’s uncertainty around that, every little bit of news is going to make investors excited or worried,’ said Pride. “That’s the reason we’ll have the ongoing volatility in these stocks.”
On Tuesday at 11:40 a.m. (1540 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 238.98 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 47,607.61, the S&P 500 was down 16.07 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 6,816.36 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 180.39 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 23,346.78.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe was up 1.35 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 1,006.32. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 1.33 per cent, and Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 31.34 points, or 1.37 per cent.
The U.S. Treasury market was closed for Veterans Day.
In currencies, the U.S. dollar weakened against the euro and yen on concerns about a deteriorating U.S. labor market after an ADP Research report showed that private employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs a week in the four weeks ended October 25.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, was down 0.26 per cent to 99.38, with the euro up 0.32 per cent at $1.1593.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.12 per cent to 153.96.
In energy markets, oil prices rose due to the impact of the latest U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, although oversupply concerns limited gains.
U.S. crude rose 1.68 per cent to $61.14 a barrel and Brent rose to $65.17 per barrel, up 1.73 per cent on the day.
In precious metals, gold prices hit a near three-week high, bolstered by expectations the U.S. government would reopen and resume releases of economic data that could potentially set the stage for the Federal Reserve to trim interest rates next month.
Spot gold fell 0.08 per cent to $4,112.49 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.09 per cent to $4,108.00 an ounce.