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Tech Sell-Off Goes Global; Powell, Jobless Claims, OPEC+ - What's up in Markets

Published 03/04/2021, 06:41 AM
Updated 03/04/2021, 06:43 AM
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- The tech stock sell-off goes global, with heavy sector losses in Asia and Europe. Ten-year bond yields settle into a range around 1.47%, ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s last speech before the next policy meeting. Jobless claims are due and OPEC meets with Russia to set output quotas for April. Here’s what’s moving markets on Thursday, March 4th.

1. Global tech sell-off continues; metals also hit

Selling of technology stocks across the world continued overnight after another rise in bond yields triggered sharp losses in the Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday.

China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 lost over 3% in Thursday, session, while South Korea’s KOSPI lost 1.5%. The EURO STOXX Technology index also fell almost 3%, with chipmakers and payments companies – two of the hottest sub-sectors in recent months – giving up the most.

Losses weren’t confined to tech, however. Base metals also sold off sharply, correcting after a mammoth rally so far this year. Copper futures fell nearly 5% to trade back below $4 a pound, while Nickel Futures in London lost 7.5% - both of which were reflected in sharp drops in London-listed mining stocks.

The U.S. 10-Year yield, meanwhile, stabilized around 1.47%.

2. Jobless Claims and Powell to set the tone

The increasing unease about the path of interest rates will ensure a sharp focus on Federal Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at 12:05 PM ET, his last scheduled appearance before the Fed’s top brass enters its usual pre-meeting quiet period.

None of the Federal Open Markets Committee’s most influential members have signaled any real concern about bond yields so far in their public comments, focusing rather on the underlying weakness in the labor market.

That is likely to be on show again at 8:30 AM ET, when the week’s jobless claims are released. Analysts expect a modest increase in initial claims to 750,000. U.S. durable goods orders data for February are out at the same time, while the Challenger Job Cuts survey for February is due an hour earlier.

3. Stock sell-off set to continue

U.S. stocks are seen extending Wednesday’s losses when they open again later, on fresh fears that a rise in interest rates will undermine the case for the heroic valuations still commanded by many companies, especially in the tech space.

By 6:30 AM ET, Dow Jones futures were down 147 points, or 0.5%, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.7% and Nasdaq 100 futures were again underperforming with a drop of 0.9%.  Tesla, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Advanced Micro Devices  (NASDAQ:AMD) stock were all clearly down in premarket trading. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock was down by slightly less, after news that it is in talks to secure exclusive streaming rights for a large number of NFL games

Broadcom will release earnings after the closing bell.

4. OPEC+ meet to set April quotas

The world’s largest oil exporters will set production quotas for April, having broken with tradition by not leaking much of their intentions ahead of time. The pre-meeting of OPEC’s market monitoring committee ended without a formal recommendation to the ministers who will start thrashing out a deal at 8 AM ET (1300 GMT).

Analysts suggest that a net increase in output of anything less than 1.5 million barrels a day will be bullish for prices, arguing that global demand has recovered enough to absorb the extra supply. The big unknown is how quickly Saudi Arabia will unwind the 1 million b/d cut that it made unilaterally for February and March. That number is unlikely to be captured in the headline announcement by OPEC.

Crude prices have eased a little overnight: WTI Futures were down 0.3% at $61.09 a barrel, while Brent crude was down 0.3% at $63.91 a barrel.

5. Melvin claws back less than half its losses

The hedge fund targeted by users of a Reddit chatboard in the epic short squeeze of GameStop (NYSE:GME) stock and others was still showing the scars of that fight last month.

CNBC, citing anonymous sources, said Melvin Capital posted a 21.7% return for February after losing 53% in January as retail traders forced it to unwind its big bet against the video games retailer in a hurry.

Melvin had been rescued by capital injections from Steven Cohen’s Point 72 investment firm and Ken Griffin’s Citadel – the latter being the company that is the biggest buyer of order flow data from online brokerage Robinhood.

Latest comments

down baby technology is pooping.lol
technology is poping
Everything is down. Nothing is popping. Institutions are rading the coffers
technology is taking it on the chin
sorry it's pooping
Even crypto doesnt harvest as much profit as these institutions.
tech is cheap now... load up and win
tech bubble go pop
name checks out
lol
I don't see the willingness nor the enough political goodwill in the fed to stop the interest rates from keep rising medium term. some might say a huge correction is good at this point. I would advise at least to get out of the speculative stocks and also the tech stocks.
fed has sole control over interest rates so they don't have to "keep anything from rising".... they just don't raise interest rates which they have said over and over again they will not without ample amounts of warning. 10%+ haircut off the top already is not a big enough correction? this "crash" is just about finished.
 that's rubbish - the buying and selling of the ten year US treasury bond sets the interest rates - and as such, the FED has to start buying up that bond in vast quantities to stop the continuing sell off. The same will happen to the 20 and 30 year bonds as inflation fears and inflation actuality kick in - which is just around the corner with oil prices rising significantly quicker and quicker along with other commodity prices. This is known as yield curve control which they'll have to do if they want to keep rates down - Like Japan, they'll end up owning half the bond and stock market just to keep prices from falling too far and from preventing the yield on the us treasuries from going through the roof.
Guys, let me ask what is the word
Lol
bird bird bird, bird is the word
with little to no money left sitting on the sidelines of course there's going to be a sell-off
Nonsense there trillions slushing around form every continent and country passing stimulous. This is institutional greed plain and simple.
lol... all I, and many others, have is cash sitting on the sidelines waiting for the hedge funds to take their revenge out on poor new traders...
 the irony being that much of that stimulus is pouring into crypto which will just continue to show the USD up for what it is - a sinking ship.
Time to just go all in crypto. Market is too volitile and lost too much. At least my crypto is making money.
any my crypto is worth about 10x more than gold lol
worth and paper value are different things my friend
exactly, the crypto haters talk of incredibly volatile crypto markets, but when you look at much of the nasdaq over the last year, it's not much different and the Dow in the last week has shown even it too can be wild - and the worst of the volatility in the traditional markets has yet to arrive. crypto is investing in great tech that is going to be the backbone of internet 2.0 for anyone who can be bothered to actually learn about it rather than spouting the rubbish of the mainstream media, politicos and central bankers. Decentralised finance is going to be the biggest thing since the invention of the steam engine - and it's unstoppable - it's borderless.
j&j isnt tech and still going down imagine that buds!!!
When tech stock are down we can buy more cheaper prices, I don't think market going to be crash.
Meanwhile my trades have been in negative, although my predictions are correct :)
same
Yeah same here. Why the ***that happens
guess who's trying with all force to push small cap growth stocks down. mega caps like apple actually need a dampener but those hedge funds are creating a bubble, putting more money into apple while shorting everything else.
Smart ones make 200% with stock. Dumm ones make 2% with Bonds.
really smart ones make 1700% with alt coins - I bought 10000 usd of zilliqa a year ago - it's now worth over 170,000 usd - alt coins are the way to go!
Are we looking at 2008?
That's the question, though, isn't it? Unfortunately, unless you can peer into the future no one knows until after the sky has fallen.
Quite possibly. Banking crisis won't come for lack of liquidity though. Central banks are printing more than ever at this time. But once that stops or markets recognise it is about to all come to an end, these grossly overvalued stocks will crash back down to historic p/e levels. The economic recovery will be fraught with difficulties, not least weaning individuals and companies off of their stimulus addiction. If stocks fall hard, particularly the US tech stocks then the USD will come under pressure. It has up to now been a safe haven because of US economic strength relative to it's peers but these are new times we face and the rulebook has been set alight. Keep stacking PGMs under your bed.
to start with 2001
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