Market Update & Important Indicators
U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. The U.S. gold price traded slightly lower overnight, pulling back 0.1% to close at 1,290.60 US$/oz.
A broad gauge of European stocks steadied at the end of trade Thursday, after spending the session struggling to find firm direction. But French blue-chip shares climbed after data showed the country led the strengthening in the eurozone economy this month. The Stoxx Europe 600 closed up less than 1 point at 387.12 after a topsy-turvy session for European equities. The index had risen as much as 0.2% and lost as much as 0.6% intraday. The financial and utility sectors closed in the red, but consumer goods and telecom shares led advancers. In Paris, the CAC 40 sloughed off losses and finished up 0.5% at 5,379.54, the highest close since Nov. 10, according to FactSet data. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 index ended down 0.5% to 13,008.55, adding to the 1.2% slide logged Wednesday. In Madrid, the IBEX 35 picked up 0.2% to end at 10,032.80 while in London, the FTSE 100 index UKX, -0.02% fell less than 2 points to 7,417.24.
Markets edged lower Thursday, dragged down by a fall in Chinese stocks after regulators moved to tighten their grip on financial markets. The Shanghai Composite fell 2.3% to a two-month low. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1%, a day after closing above 30000 for the first time in a decade, and the Shenzhen Composite slid 2.9%. It was the first time since Aug. 25 that the Shanghai Composite finished with a drop or gain of at least 1%, the longest period of calm for what has been a historically volatile benchmark. This year, the index has only had 11 moves of such magnitude, compared with 65 in 2016 and 141 in 2015. Investors in Chinese assets are concerned about the government's move to reign in increasing amounts of debt and cool excesses in financial markets.
Further gains by resource stocks balanced out weakness among Australia's big banks, with the country's benchmark finishing steady after being down modestly nearly all day. With a late-afternoon rebound, the S&P/ASX 200 settled down 0.2 point at 5986.2, after partaking in the region's gains of the past 2 days. Markets largely paused today with holidays in the US and Japan. BHP Billiton climbed 1.3% and South32 rose 2.1% while Woodside and Oil Search rose less than 1% after yesterday's broad advances in commodity prices. Meanwhile, the 4 major banks fell 0.2-0.7%.
The London Metal Exchange’s 3-month copper contract traded modestly higher overnight, gaining 0.1% to finish at $6,963/t. The other base metals finished mostly higher. Aluminium prices rose 0.4% to 2,097/t, whilst zinc prices gained 0.3% to close at 3,269/t. Lead prices again pulled back, falling 0.3% to close at 2,446/t, whilst nickel prices bounced 0.8% at 11,873/t. Tin prices closed 0.1% higher at 19,488/t.
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