Asia Morning US Stocks End in Red Trump Actions on China Awaited

On Thursday, U.S. stocks erased gains to close in the red after President Donald Trump announced plans to hold a Friday press conference on China. Beijing has just passed a controversial national security law which is widely expected to erode Hong Kong's autonomy. 

Sentiment was also hurt by Trump's saying that he would sign an executive order putting more scrutiny on social media companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 147 points (-0.6%) to 25400, the S&P 500 dropped 6 points (-0.2%) to 3029 and the Nasdaq 100 was down 25 points (-0.3%) to 9416.


Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView

Automobiles & Components (-3.86%), Consumer Durables & Apparel (-3.13%) and Banks (-3.08%) sectors lost the most.

HP Inc (HPQ -12.32%), Kohls (KSS -9.74%), Hanesbrands (HBI -9.65%) and TripAdvisor (TRIP -9.46%) were top losers, while Dollar Tree (DLTR +11.55%), Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN +7.80%) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN +6.29%) were top gainers.    

On the technical side, about 43.2% (38.0% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 89.5% (83.0% in the prior session) were above their 20-day moving average.

U.S. official data showed that first-quarter GDP (second reading) contracted at an annualized rate of 5.0% on quarter (-4.8% expected). 

Initial Jobless Claims declined to 2.123 million for the week ended May 23 (2.100 million expected). Continuing Claims unexpectedly decreased to 21.052 million for the week ended May 16 (25.680 million expected) from the prior week's 24.912 million, showing that Americans are returning to work.

Durable Goods Orders (preliminary reading) dropped 17.2% on month in April, the biggest decline on record.

Later today, Wholesale Inventories (-0.7% on month in April expected), Personal Income (-6.0% on month expected), Personal Spending (-12.8% on month expected), Market News International's Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (40.0 in May expected) and the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index (74.0 in May expected) will be reported.

European stocks continues their advance, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rising 1.6%. Germany's DAX increased 1.1%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 1.2% and France's CAC jumped 1.8%.

U.S. Treasury prices softened, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield stepped higher to 0.703%.

Spot gold price rebounded $8 (+0.5%) to $1,717 an ounce halting a three-day decline.

Oil prices rebounded despite a build of 7.9 million barrels in U.S. crude-oil stockpiles last week as reported by the Energy Information Administration. U.S. WTI crude oil futures (July) gained 2.7% to $33.71 a barrel.

On the forex front, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index dropped 0.4% on day to 98.47, the lowest level since March 30.

EUR/USD advanced 0.6% to 1.1076, posting a three-day rally. Official data showed that the eurozone's Economic Confidence Index bounced to 67.5 in May (70.6 expected) from 64.9 in April. Later today, the bloc's CPI data for May will be released (+0.1% on year expected).