Market Commentary - Foreign Markets
US Stocks Extend Downside Amid Profit Taking As on : 22-Jul-24  10:52

US equities extended decline for the second consecutive session on Friday as investors continued to take profits following recent record highs in major indices. Stocks moved mostly with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 extending the steep drop seen over the two previous sessions. The Dow slumped 377.49 points or 0.9 percent to 40,287.53, the Nasdaq slid 144.28 points or 0.8 percent to 17,726.94 and the S&P 500 fell 39.59 points or 0.7 percent to 5,505.00. For the week, the major averages turned in a mixed performance. The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged by 3.7 percent and the S&P 500 tumbled by 2.0 percent, but the Dow climbed by 0.7 percent.

A global IT outage added to the unease after an already turbulent week, affecting services from airlines to banks. The operations of major banks, media outlets, hospitals and airlines worldwide were affected due to the widespread outage, which was purportedly caused by an update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD). The outage was allegedly due to an update from CrowdStrike (down 11.1%), which caused a problem with Microsoft's (down 0.7%) Windows.

In the bond market, treasuries pulled back further off their recent highs. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 5.0 basis points to 4.22 percent. A report on personal income and spending in the month of June is likely to be in focus next week, as it includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve.

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