The US equity markets saw mixed performances on Thursday, but closed November on high note. Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all the 3 indexes ended their 3-month losing streaks. Dow Jones saw a significant rally intraday after the US Fed’s preferred measure of inflation saw a dip again in October. Salesforce shares provided the remaining support to the overall index. Oil prices saw a decline after OPEC and its allies came at a conclusion to deepen the production cuts. However, analysts expect that prices should increase as and when demand grows. Apart from this, pending home sales declined to their lowest level in around 2 decades.
Since markets saw mixed performances, The Dow Jones led the charge Thursday because big 3 indexes ended up a red-hot November. The Dow Jones went up by ~520 points, or ~1.5%. S&P 500 increased ~0.4% and The Nasdaq Composite declined ~0.2%. The US Federal Reserve should now keep its benchmark interest rate steady at its December meeting and then it should begin to cut down rates provided inflation is under control.
Oil futures declined, with investors reacting to the OPEC’s announcement regarding additional voluntary output cuts in 1Q24. Announced cuts will include the extension of Saudi Arabia’s and Russia’s 1.3 million bpd voluntary reductions. It will also include other voluntary cuts by the countries like Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman.
Elsewhere, Indian markets remained upbeat as benchmark indices closed higher in a volatile expiry session on 30th November 30 as Nifty closed above 20,100. By the day’s end, Sensex gained ~86.53 points or ~0.13% to close the session at ~66,988.44, and Nifty went up by ~36.60 points or ~0.18% at 20,133.20. Talking about sectoral front, the PSU Bank index saw a decline of ~1.5%, and pharma, capital goods, realty and oil & gas indexes grew by 1%-1.5% each.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged 0.50% higher, to 33,486.89, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up by 0.29% to close the session at 17,042.88. Shanghai Composite index went up by ~0.26% to ~3,029.67. Strong performance in the Asian markets was well-supported by the favourable economic data points and expectations that US inflation rate will come within the US Fed’s target range.
South Korea’s Kospi ended lower by 0.75% to close at 2,516.31, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell by 0.53% to 7,049.70.
Read Also: