Mon 15 Dec: After the Bell🔒

Wall Street Slips as Investors Brace for Labour Data. Your 5’ evening market wrap📄📈

ℹ️ Today’s performance tables & charts on the ‘Market Data’ post.

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Good evening,

Wall Street opened the final full trading week of the year on a cautious footing, with attention firmly shifting to Tuesday’s delayed US employment report. Equity futures pointed to a rebound ahead of the open, up around 0.5% after Friday’s sharp sell-off, but the early strength faded through the session. Stocks reversed lower by midday, with technology leading the decline and Nasdaq indices falling to their lowest levels in three weeks. Sector performance was mixed, with healthcare outperforming and IT the clear laggard, though overall moves were contained.

Forex and bond markets were largely unchanged as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the labour data. Markets are now pricing a roughly 78% probability that the Fed leaves rates unchanged at its late-January meeting, up from about 68% a week ago following the December cut and Powell’s comments.

In commodities, crude oil slid more than 1%, pressured by weak Chinese economic data released over the weekend, which outweighed ongoing geopolitical supply risks linked to Russia-Ukraine and Venezuela. Risk-off sentiment also extended to digital assets, with Bitcoin trading well below the $90,000 level once again.