The ASX is heading for a crunch this morning after Wall Street suffered a late slide that wiped out early gains after a report cast doubt on the big news from Monday of an interesting coronavirus vaccine trial.
The report saw Wall Street turn lower in the last hour of trading as the Dow and S&P 500, in particular, shed more than 1% in value.
That saw trading on the ASX 24 futures market turn down and just before 7 am, it was off a nasty 88 points, meaning most of Tuesday’s 99 point of 1.8% rise could disappear very quickly when trading resumes later this morning.
Major averages fell to session lows in the wake of a report from STAT News (https://www.statnews.com) that questioned the validity of the results of Moderna Inc’s vaccine trial, which the company had announced Monday. Moderna shares plunged after the report and closed down 10.41%.
Investors also gave the thumbs down to quarterly reports from three big retailers – Kohl’s, Home Depot, and Walmart.
Shares in the home improvement chain Home Depot fell 2.96% after it missed quarterly profit estimates due to higher costs, while department store operator Kohl’s Corp tumbled 7.6% after reporting a bigger-than-expected loss.
Walmart shares lost 2.12% (after being up more than 3% immediately after the better than expected quarterly result and a big surge in online sales).
The Dow fell 390.51 points, or 1.59%, to 24,206.86, the S&P 500 dropped 30.97 points, or 1.05%, to end at 2,922.94 and the Nasdaq shed 49.72 points, or 0.54%, to close at 9,185.10.
That was after most European markets sold off, especially Italy and Spain.
US oil futures survived the expiration of the June West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract with no repeat of the chaotic trading a month ago.
On Tuesday, the June contract, which expired at the end of the session, held ground above the price for the July contract, ending at $US32.50 a barrel, up 68 cents, or 2.1%.
The July WTI contract, which is now the most actively traded, added 31 cents, or 1%, to settle at $US31.96 a barrel.
Meanwhile, In Europe the global benchmark, Brent crude for July delivery lost 16 cents, or 0.5%, to $US34.65 a barrel. That was the first loss in four sessions.
Comex gold futures rose on Tuesday after Monday’s sharp fall.
Gold for June delivery on Comex added $US11.20, or nearly 0.7%, to settle at $US1,745.60 an ounce on Tuesday. Comex July silver rose another 43.3 cents, or 2.5%, to settle at $US17.901 an ounce, after climbing by more than 2% on Monday.
And Comex July copper settled at $US2.418 a pound, up 0.6% after a big rise on Monday.
Iron ore prices rose again to reach $US98.36 a tonne for 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China.
That took the rebound so far this month to around 15%.
