The cloud giants are fooling the markets: the contracts are rising, a surge in Korea

14:30

The futures contracts in New York point to a green opening and a recovery trend, after volatile days recorded in the markets this week. Optimism is led by the technology giants: Nasdaq contracts rise by about 1.3% and the S&P 500 adds about 0.5%, mainly thanks to strong financial reports from Amazon, which jumps in early trading today and in late trading yesterday by about 12% thanks to strong growth in the cloud arm. This follows the 16% jump registered by Microsoft last night following strong results in the cloud sector and AI, which ignited a broad rally in chip stocks. On the other hand, Apple’s stock is down about 7% in early trading due to a weak forecast for the next quarter. Novo Nordisk’s stock is also down 9% after a failed heart drug trial. At the same time, investors are considering further steps following the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, which led to an increase in bond yields. for 30 years to a record level of 5.2%.

The stock exchanges on the continent are trading in a positive trend, with the European Stoxx 600 index rising by about 0.6%. The British FTSE index stands out especially after it recorded an all-time high led by the technology fund Polar Capital and bank shares.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, the CAC index leads the gains among the main indices with a jump of 0.8%. In Frankfurt, the German DAX registered an increase of 0.6%.

The European defense sector is attracting a lot of interest and is trading in the green amid a sharp increase in government order backlogs, led by the Italian company Leonardo, which jumps by about 3.5% after raising its annual profit forecast. In the energy sector, energy giant BP adds about 1% after announcing its intention to sell its assets in the North Sea. On the other hand, Universal Music’s stock plunged over 23% in Amsterdam until the trading halt there, following weaker than expected results in revenue from subscriptions.

A powerful positive trend was registered today in the Asian stock markets, as it completes a sharp recovery following strong results from the technology giant Amazon and the recovery of the sector on Wall Street. The gains were led by South Korea, where the Kospi index recorded the best trading day in its history with a jump of 17.9% to 6,595.45 points. The rise in Korea was led by the chip giants SK Hynix which soared by 25% and Samsung which soared by over 20%.

At the same time, the Nikkei index in Tokyo climbed by 4.03% against the background of a jump in chip stocks and the decision of the Central Bank of Japan to leave the interest rate unchanged at 1%. In Taiwan, an 8% jump was recorded in the Taiex index. On the other hand, a mixed trend was recorded in China: the CSI 300 index rose by 0.85% despite the data of the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing chains which disappointed and fell to 49.2 points, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed without significant change.

The commodity market presents a mixed picture today. Energy prices are registering rate increases, with WTI oil adding 1.58% to its value and trading at $84.91 per barrel, while a barrel of Brent oil is up 1.31% and crosses back the $90 mark to $90.20. On the other hand, the assets that are considered safe havens or risk assets register declines, the price of gold weakened by 1.21% to $4,110.30 per ounce, while the digital currency, bitcoin, loses 1.51% of its value and trades around $63,785.56.