Asia Morning Oct 20

On Monday, U.S. stocks closed sharply lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 410 points (-1.44%) to 28195, the S&P 500 shed 56 points (-1.63%) to 3426, and the Nasdaq 100 tumbled 217 points (-1.84%) 11634.


Nasdaq 100 Index (Daily Chart) : Consolidation

Sources: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on the government to reconcile remaining disputes on a fiscal stimulus package within 48 hours, no progress was made toward a deal agreement between the government and Congress.

Technology Hardware & Equipment (-2.27%), Energy (-2.1%) and Software & Services (-2.01%) sectors lost the most. Nordstrom (JWN -5.88%), Gartner (IT -4.41%), Ross Stores (ROST -4.37%) and VF (VFC -4.33%) were top losers.  

ConocoPhillips (COP -3.17%) said it has agreed to buy U.S. shale oil producer Concho Resources (CXO -2.76%) for $9.7 billion.

Approximately 75% (74% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average and 81% (83% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average. 

European stocks were broadly lower while trading volumes were greatly reduced by a technical glitch at exchange operator Euronext. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.18%, Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.42%, France's CAC 40 eased 0.13%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.59%.

U.S. Treasury prices posted modest losses, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose to 0.760% from 0.740% Friday.

Spot gold rose $4 (+0.22%) to $1,903 an ounce.

U.S. WTI crude futures (December) declined $0.06 (-0.20%) to $41.06 a barrel.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar weakened further against other major currencies, though its loss shrank at the end of the session. The ICE Dollar Index lost 0.27% to 93.43.

The British pound was lifted by the European Union's comments that it was ready to intensify talks with Britain toward a trade deal. GBP/USD once breached the key 1.3000 level before closing at 1.2954, up 0.31% on day. 

EUR/USD jumped 0.45% to 1.1769, while USD/JPY was little changed at 105.43.

AUD/USD was down for a fourth session as it dropped 0.1% to 0.7071. China's Gross Domestic Products (GDP) grew 4.9% on year in the third quarter, lower than +5.5% expected. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese yuan reached a fresh 18-month high against the dollar, with USD/CNH (offshore yuan) falling 0.26% to 6.6787.