Yesterday was a mixed session for equity markets; the Dow Jones finished lower, while the more influential Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 made modest gains. Eight out of 11 S&P 500 sectors were up on the day. The pick of these was real estate, which added 1.77%, taking its monthly gains to 7.29% and three months gains to almost 18%.
Consumer discretionary stocks also travelled well, with the sector up by 1.39%, while information technology added 1.23%. The big loser on the day at a sector level in the S&P was energy, which fell by 1.92% and has lost 5.45% over the last month, though it's still hanging on to year-to-date gains of 1.4%.
Looking at individual stocks, JPMorgan - one of the world’s largest banks - fell 5.19% on what amounted to a profit warning. Bank president and chief operating officer Daniel Pinto said that forecasts for JPMorgan's net interest income were overly optimistic and that next year was going to be more challenging. The financials sector had been the best-performing sector over the last 12 months as recently as 5 September, but it has now lost that crown.
JPMorgan wasn't the only stock to fall on unexpected news. In Europe, BMW lost more than 11% as the company warned on profitability and deliveries in an ad-hoc announcement, announcing a recall of 1.5 million vehicles caused by issues with braking systems, adding that group earnings before tax would decrease significantly because of the recall. Several other auto-related stocks in the DAX sold off in sympathy.
It wasn't all bad news yesterday, however. Oracle was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, rallying 11.44% on higher guidance and optimism about its exposure to artificial intelligence. Broadcom bounced by 5.25% and Tesla bucked the auto negativity to add 4.58% in the session.
The best performer in the Euro Stoxx 50 was Air Liquide, which was up by 1.67%, followed by Safran which added 1.08%. Looking at the broader-based Stoxx 600 index, technology group Capgemini rallied by 5.29% and Glanbia was up by 4.38%, but train maker Alstom lost 4.82% and is now down by 32.64% over the last year.
CFDs on US equity indices are pointing to a weaker open, with the S&P 500 called down by 0.27%. Crude oil is trying to rally once more in early European trade. However, there is more conviction today, with WTI up by 1.49% and Brent by 1.45%, helped in part by worsening weather in the Gulf of Mexico and an unexpected 2.79-million-barrel drop in US crude supplies announced yesterday. Gold is also higher, trading up almost 0.3% at $2,526 per ounce. Silver has added 1.27% but is still below $29 an ounce.
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