29th July 2021 Morning Report

Thursday 29th July 2021

U.S. stock markets closed Wednesday mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.37%, while the S&P 500 was little change, and the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.7% higher.

The Fed held its benchmark interest rate close to zero and said it would continue to buy at least $120 billion of Treasury securities and other assets each month. It also reiterated and that “inflation has risen but continues to show signs of being transitory”. It further said that the economy showing signs of recovering from the disruptions caused by Covid-19.

The benchmark 10-year yield ended up 2 basis points near 1.26%.

Apple Inc. beat on both the top and bottom lines as every product line posted annual sales growth of at least 12%. The tech giant warned the chip shortage would impact iPhone and iPad sales in the current quarter. Microsoft Corp. posted record quarterly profit as revenue from its Azure cloud service soared 51%. Sales guidance for the current quarter exceeded expectations. Alphabet reported a revenue record with adverting revenue up 70% boosted by online shopping during Covid-19.

Other overseas markets closed mixed. European exchanges were higher across the board with France’s CAC gaining 1.18%, Britain’s FTSE 100 up 0.29% and Germany’s DAX 30 higher by 0.33%. In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 1.54% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1.39% and 0.58%, respectively.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 74 cents to $72.39 a barrel and gold was unchanged at $1,799.50 an ounce.

Morning Report 29 July 2021

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