The US stock exchanges continue to trade on the red zone as the main stock indicators creep down on Wednesday. Note that on Monday, there was a lull in the market due to the holiday in the US, and on Tuesday, a significant contraction was observed.
There are several reasons for the negative dynamics. First, US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that in the event of his re-election to the position of the President of the United States, he would stop all trade and economic relations with China and plans to make the American economy independent from the Chinese economy. According to Trump, the United States has become too attached to the Chinese markets and goods, which brings colossal monetary losses to the US economy.
Such statements cannot but cause a negative reaction from market participants which seriously exacerbate the already strained relations between states. The new wave of conflict between Washington and Beijing does not make anyone happy. Investors are primarily concerned about the US tech sector, which is already struggling and could be hit even harder amid growing disagreements.
The second reason for the fall in stock markets is problems in the technology sector. Shares in the main high-tech companies are rapidly declining in value, which directly puts pressure on the level of stock indicators. The value of Apple Inc. decreased by 2.7%, Microsoft Corp. has already lost 5.4%, and Alphabet Inc. parted with 3.6%. All this immediately affected the indices which sharply went down.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 2.25% or 632.42 points, which forced it to move to the level of 27,500.89 points.
The S&P 500 index fell 2.78% or 95.12 points. Its current level was 3,331.84 points.
The Nasdaq Composite index became the leader of the contraction which tanked 4.11% or 465.44 points, which sent it to the area of 10,847.69 points.
The Asian stocks also plummetted Wednesday morning. The fall in the level of the main stock indicators was due to the large-scale sale of securities of companies in the technology sector, which, already begun worldwide following that in the US. The pressure is also coming from the difficulties in clinical trials of the vaccine against coronavirus infection. It was on the early release of this drug that investors were betting, and the current situation, of course, upset them. Another factor for the decline was the escalation of the conflict between the United States and China, which was again triggered by Trump's strong statements.
Optimism about the vaccine and an early victory over COVID-19 is slowly fading. Clinical trials had to be halted after AstraZeneca faced problems after the identification of an incomprehensible disease in a test participant while taking the developed drug. Until this situation is resolved, vaccine testing will not continue. Whether how much time it will take to fix the side effect and all possible checks are not yet known.
China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.2%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index continued its negative trend and fell 0.8%. This was against the background of ambiguous statistics on the inflation rate in the country which fell to its minimum values recorded in May of this year. This happened against the background of falling food prices. Meanwhile, the level of consumer prices increased by 2.4% on an annualized basis, which is also positive, since the decrease in July was greater with 2.7%. On the contrary, producer prices fell 2% in August, the seventh straight cut. Although this also showcased that the drop is gradually decreasing.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Index declined by 1%.
South Korea's Kospi index sank 0.8%. There was a noted drop in the unemployment rate in the country over the last month of summer by 3.2%. The previous figure was noted at 4.2%. This figure has become the minimum for the current year, which cannot but please investors.
The Australian S & P / ASX 200 index was marked by a fairly substantial drop of 2.26%.
European stock exchanges, on the other hand, experienced predominantly positive sentiment. The main stock indicators left the correction and began to move up. However, the news about the failed trials of the coronavirus vaccine makes market participants nervous.
The general index of large enterprises in the European region Stoxx Europe 600 increased by 0.95%, which moved it to the level of 367.20 points.
The UK FTSE 100 Index rallied 1.14%. The German DAX Index climbed 1.17%. France's CAC 40 Index increased by 0.96%. Italy's FTSE MIB jumped 0.9%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.72%.
