Global stock markets closed mostly lower Tuesday ahead of key company earnings, following a strong start to a week dominated by the spellbinding US presidential race.
Wall Street stocks finished a choppy session slightly lower as investors assessed mixed earnings reports, while Europe’s main stock markets were mixed after Asia’s major indices closed lower.
“It is a mixed picture,” LPL Financial’s Quincy Krosby told AFP. “And when you are in a slowing environment, you’re going to get a mixed picture.”
Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris had little major impact on sentiment, analysts said.
“Politics could be less of a driver for markets for the rest of the summer now that the Democrats are back in the race,” noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
Harris and Trump “are known quantities, so whoever wins the race for the White House, the market, in some ways, knows what to expect”, she said.
Attention turned to corporate earnings, with Google parent Alphabet and electric carmaker Tesla both reporting results after Wall Street closed on Tuesday.
In its earnings, Tesla reported a sharp drop in second-quarter profits due to the effect of price cuts, while Alphabet beat revenue and profit expectations as its cloud and search ads businesses thrived.
Tesla’s shares fell around two percent in after-hours trading Tuesday, while Alphabet climbed more than one percent.
The two American tech titans are part of the “Magnificent Seven” group of firms that have driven a rally that pushed all three main New York indices to fresh records this year, thanks also to expectations that the US Federal Reserve will soon cut borrowing costs.
But the news has been less positive this month, with the Magnificent Seven experiencing “a sharp decline in total return,” said market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and FOREX.com.
In Europe, Swedish music streaming giant Spotify reported a 12 percent increase in subscribers to 246 million in the second quarter, beating estimates, along with a 266-million-euro operating profit. Its shares bounded more than 12 percent higher.
The US central bank’s monetary policy is back in focus ahead of Friday’s release of personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data — the Fed’s favoured measure of inflation.
After a small uptick earlier this year, PCE headline inflation ticked lower again in May, raising the chances that the Fed could soon begin cutting interest rates.
Key figures around 2000 GMT
New York – Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 40,358.09 points (close)
New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.2 percent at 5,555.74 (close)
New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 17,997.35 (close)
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,167.37 (close)
Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 7,598.63 (close)
Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 18,557.70 (close)
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 4,916.80 (close)
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: FLAT at 39,594.39 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.9 percent at 17,469.36 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.7 percent at 2,915.37 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0855 from $1.0890 on Monday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2907 from $1.2929
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 155.62 yen from 157.08 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 84.08 pence at 84.20 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.8 percent at $76.96 per barrel
Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.7 percent at $81.01 per barrel
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