(Australian Associated Press)
29 June 2017
NEW YORK: Wall Street has rallied sharply, with the S&P 500 scoring its biggest one-day percentage gain in about two months, as financial and tech stocks led a broad market rebound.
The Nasdaq posted its best session since November 7, the day before the US presidential election.
The benchmark S&P had suffered its biggest one-day drop in about six weeks on Tuesday after a healthcare bill was delayed in the Senate.
The healthcare legislation is the first major plank of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda, with investors eager for him to move onto his other plans including tax cuts, infrastructure spending and deregulation.
Investors may be re-evaluating the impact of the Senate’s delay on the market and Trump’s agenda, said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in New Jersey.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68 per cent to 21,454.61, the S&P 500 gained 0.88 per cent to 2440.69 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.43 per cent to 6234.41.
LONDON: European shares mainly ended flat on Wednesday as a third day of gains for banking stocks in a session dominated by bets about future central bank action offset a tech sell-off.
The STOXX 600 ended flat as further gains among financials, which benefit from tighter monetary policy, drove the pan-European index off a 2-month low hit in morning trading.
Investors remained focused on when the European Central Bank would begin winding down its stimulus after comments on Tuesday from President Mario Draghi that were taken as a hawkish swing, lifting the euro and boosting banks.
Utilities, which instead benefit from loose monetary policy, fell 0.2 per cent but came off lows after media reports that Draghi’s remarks on Tuesday had been overinterpreted.
German utilities RWE and E.ON were among the worst performers, down 2.4 and 1.3 per cent respectively.
Garmany’s DAX lost 0.2 per cent to 12,647.27.
Britain’s top share index dipped, depressed by a slide in Hargreaves Lansdown and oil stocks, though a jump in Bunzl’s shares offered some relief.
The FTSE 100 index fell 0.6 per cent to 7,387.80. A brief recovery was brought to an end in afternoon trading when Bank of England governor Mark Carney said the bank would debate an interest rate increase in the coming months.
TOKYO: Asian shares slumped after Wall Street was knocked hard in the wake of a delay to a US healthcare reform vote.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 per cent, pulling further away from more than two-year highs probed earlier this week.
Japan’s Nikkei share average ended down 0.5 per cent at 20,130.41, facing headwinds from the US dollar’s reversal of its rise against the yen. But the banking and insurance sectors outperformed on expectations of higher rates.
Hong Kong stocks fell the most in nearly two weeks, with sentiment hurt by Wall Street’s stumble and more losses on the city’s second board following the previous session’s nearly 10 per cent slide.
The Hang Seng index fell 0.6 per cent to 25,683.50, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.9 per cent to 10,408.19 points.
China’s main stocks indexes fell as comments by Premier Li Keqiang raised concerns over an economic slowdown and regulatory tightening.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.8 per cent, to 3,646.17 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 per cent to 3,173.20 points.
WELLINGTON: The S&P/NZX 50 Index dropped 0.02 per cent to 7624.49.
