Asia Morning Oct 16

Asia Morning: U.S. Stocks Down for Third Session

On Thursday, U.S. stocks slipped for a third session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 19 points (-0.07%) to 28494, the S&P 500 declined 5 points (-0.15%) to 3483, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 86 points (-0.72%) to 11898.

S&P 500 Index (Daily Chart): Bullish Above 3390

Sources: GAIN Capital, TradingView

U.S. official data showed that Initial Jobless Claims unexpectedly jumped to 898,000 (825,000 expected), at the same time the government and Congress still failed to agree on a economic stimulus deal.

Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences (-1.69%), Media (-0.71%) and Software & Services (-0.65%) sectors lost the most. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -20.70%), Boston Scientific (BSX -4.03%) and United Airlines (UAL -3.82%) were top losers.

Facebook (FB -2.00%) declined after Republican Senator Josh Hawley asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism after the social media platform allegedly censor a New York Post story on Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

New York manufacturing index posted a weaker reading of 10.5 (14.0 expected).

European stocks remained under pressure. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slumped 2.08%, Germany's DAX 30 shed 2.49%, France's CAC 40 sank 2.11%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 1.73%.

U.S. Treasury prices softened, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 0.734% from 0.721% Wednesday.

Spot gold gained $6.02 (+0.32%) to $1,907 an ounce.

U.S. WTI crude futures (November) edged down $0.06 (-0.15%) to $40.98 a barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration Crude reported that crude stockpiles fell by 3.8 million barrels last week, more than a reduction of 2.8 million barrels expected.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar was firm against other major currencies. The ICE Dollar Index rose 0.40% to 93.78.

GBP/USD dropped 0.77% to 1.2912. Brexit talks made no progress as European Union negotiators called on the U.K. side to make further concessions.

EUR/USD fell 0.32% to 1.1707. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe worsened. France is imposing a new curfew in Paris to curb the rise of infection cases, and the U.K. is implementing a three-tiered lockdown system.

USD/JPY rebounded 0.26% 105.44.

AUD/USD sank 0.96% to 0.7093. Official data showed that 29,500 Australians lost their jobs in September (40,000 expected) while the jobless rate ticked up to 6.9% (7.0% expected).

USD/CAD added 0.58% to 1.3218.

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