Tue 16 Dec: After the Bell🔒

Choppy Equity Session as Oil Slump Weighs on Markets. Your 5’ evening market wrap📄📈

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

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Good evening,

It was a volatile session for US equities, with the Nasdaq Composite swinging from an early 0.6% decline to a modest gain by the close, while the Dow Jones and S&P MidCap indices underperformed, each falling around 0.6%. The S&P 500 logged its third consecutive negative session, weighed down by a sharp sell-off in energy stocks, as the sector fell roughly 3% amid a steep drop in crude oil prices.

The widely anticipated November jobs report reinforced signs of a softening US labour market, though it did little to alter market expectations for another Fed rate cut in late January. Bond markets reacted more clearly, with core yields falling 3–4bp across the curve, extending the weekly decline to about 13bp at the short end and 4bp on the 10-year Treasury, resulting in further curve steepening.

In currency markets, the DXY $ index edged lower and is now more than 1% weaker over the past week, with traditional safe havens such as the Swiss franc and Japanese yen leading gains against the dollar.

Mega-cap mover today: Tesla shares gained 3% to hit a record high, surpassing the previous peak set roughly a year ago, as optimism builds around the long-promised rollout of robotaxi capabilities. The rally follows renewed momentum after Elon Musk said Tesla is testing fully driverless vehicles in Austin without safety drivers, helping reverse a volatile year that began with a 36% Q1 sell-off. Tesla’s market cap has risen to about $1.6tn, ranking it as the world’s seventh-most valuable publicly listed company.