- The NASDAQ witnesses a large surge in buy orders at the opening of the US trading session, adding 0.80%. The index has added 13.74% in 2024 up to now.
- AI & Semiconductor stocks are mainly behind the upward surge in the market ahead of NVIDIA’s earnings report tomorrow evening.
- The Australian Dollar is again the worst performing currency for a second day with the AUD Index trading 0.22% lower.
- The RBA’s Meeting Minutes confirm the committee deem a “pause” the strongest case, but that a hike may be necessary if data is “overoptimistic”.
USA100 – AI Stocks and The Semi-Conductor Sector Ensure Momentum Continues!
The NASDAQ saw a decline in the price before the US market opened, but quickly changed thereafter. At the opening of the US session, the NASDAQ rose for 3 straight hours adding 0.80% before losing momentum. Due to the bullish momentum, the index again rose to renew its all-time highs.
The best performing stocks with yesterday’s markets were largely AI driven companies as well as companies within the semiconductor sector. Some of the best performing stocks within these sectors were Applied Materials (+3.71%), Lam Research Corp (+3.29%) and Micron Technology (+2.96%). However, investors are of course mainly focusing on NVIDIA which is also likely to determine the investor sentiment towards the index in general. NVIDIA stocks rose 2.49% during yesterday’s session and is trading 0.27% higher during today’s pre-trading hours.
No major events are in the books for the day which may influence NASDAQ. However, investors will monitor the FOMC Member’s speech, Mr Christopher Weller, who is also likely to add to the rhetoric from the past week. However, investors have largely ignored comments from the Fed regarding less rate cuts than previously thought. Therefore, the speech is likely to have minimal effect unless extremely hawkish.
Technical analysis does continue to point towards an upward price movement in the medium – longer term. The price waves continue to form higher lows and higher highs. Simultaneously, the price of the index is trading above the Moving Averages and above 50.00 on the RSI. However, technical analysts advise the upward price movement may be lesser than yesterday’s due to the upcoming earnings data.
The US 10-year bond yields rose 0.05% during this morning’s Asian session. ideally investors would like to see yields remain no higher than their current point to support a further upward trend. During yesterday’s session 73% of stocks holding a weight of more than half a percent rose. For further upward price movement, investors would ideally like to again see more than 70% of the components rise further.
AUDUSD – A Break Of The Support Level Could Strengthen Sell Signals!
This morning the AUDUSD exchange rate fell 0.33% to retrace upwards when reaching the previous support level. The Australian Dollar Index is the worst performing currency trading 0.22% lower. However, the exchange rate is struggling to gain momentum below the 0.66471 support level. If the price declines below this level, sell signals are likely to strengthen.
For the exchange rate to gain momentum, the US Dollar Index will also need to support price action. The most recent support for the currency is the hawkish comments from members of the Federal Reserve Open Committee. Mrs. Loretta advises 3 rate cuts are no longer appropriate and more or less not possible, and also advises the market is no longer worried that the policy is too restrictive. Mr Bostic also added to the hawkish rhetoric.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Meeting Minutes confirm that the committee favor a pause and remain largely predictable. However, the Meeting Minutes also state the regulator would consider a hike if data became more optimistic. Nonetheless, this has not yet had a positive effect.
Michalis Efthymiou
Market Analyst
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