asia morning nov 2

On Friday, U.S. stocks ended in the red again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 157 points (-0.59%) to 26501, the S&P 500 dropped 40 points (-1.21%) to 3270, and the Nasdaq 100 slumped 297 points (-2.62%) to 11052.


S&P 500 Index (Daily Chart) : Downside Prevails

Sources: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Investors became cautious ahead of the November 3 presidential election, and remained concerned over the record-breaking COVID-19 cases around the world.

At the weekend, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a second lockdown for England in order to curb rising coronavirus cases. Pubs, restaurants, gyms and non-essential shops will have to close for four weeks, while schools, colleges and universities can stay open. 

Technology Hardware & Equipment (-4.52%), Retailing (-3.7%) and Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment (-1.94%) sectors lost the most. Facebook (FB -6.31%), Amazon.com (AMZN -5.45%) and Apple (AAPL -5.60%) were down heavily despite posting better-than-expected results. Alphabet (GOOGL +3.80%) ended higher.  

Twitter (TWTR -21.11%) was the top loser after third-quarter daily active-user amount missed market expectations.

Approximately 60% (58% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average and 16% (12% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

Regarding U.S. economic data, Personal Income rose 0.9% on month in September (+0.4% expected) and Personal Spending increased 1.4% (+1.0% expected). The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index advanced to 81.8 in October (81.2 expected), and the Market News International Chicago Business Barometer slipped to 61.1 in October (58.0 expected).

European stocks ended mixed. The Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.18%, France's CAC 40 climbed 0.54%, while Germany's DAX 30 slipped 0.36% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 dipped 0.08%.

U.S. Treasury prices remained under pressure, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield charged higher to 0.855% from 0.835% Thursday.

Spot gold gained $11 (+0.60%) to $1,878 an ounce.

U.S. WTI crude futures (December) sank a further $0.57 (-1.58%) to $35.6 a barrel.  

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar was still firm against other major currencies. The ICE Dollar Index has regained the 94.00 level.

EUR/USD declined 0.24% to 1.1646 extending its losing streak to a fifth session. Official data showed that the eurozone's GDP grew 12.7% on quarter in the third quarter (+9.6% expected), consumer prices added 0.2% on month in October (+0.1% expected) and jobless rate rose to 8.3% in September (8.2% expected).

Germany's GDP increased 8.2% on quarter in the third quarter (+7.3% expected), while retail sales declined 2.2% on month in September (-0.6% expected).   

France's GDP jumped 18.2% on quarter in the third quarter (+15.0% expected), and consumer prices edged down 0.1% on month in October (+0.0% expected).

GBP/USD added 0.14% to 1.2949. In the U.K., the Nationwide Building Society House Price Index rose 0.8% on month in October (+0.4% expected). Meanwhile, investors should beware the impact on the pound of the U.K. government's latest announcement of a new round of pandemic-induced lockdown measures.

USD/JPY edged higher to 104.66, while both AUD/USD and USD/CAD closed flat at 0.7028 and 1.3322 respectively.