Wednesday,31 July 2024 16:36:07

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Wednesday,31 July 2024 at 15:33

U.S. Stocks Move Sharply Higher ahead of Fed announcement. Stocks have shown a strong move to the upside during trading on Wednesday, with the major U.S. stock indexes all moving higher following the mixed performance seen in the previous session. The Nasdaq has shown a particularly strong upward move following the steep drop seen on Tuesday.

U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Fall more than expected. A report released by the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed crude oil inventories in the U.S. fell by more than expected in the week ended July 26th.

The EIA said crude oil inventories slumped by 3.4 million barrels last week after tumbling by 3.7 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had expected crude oil inventories to dip by 1.6 million barrels.

At 433.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year, the EIA said.

Gold ticked higher on Wednesday while the dollar slipped ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision later in the day and the Bank of England's rate decision due on Thursday.

In corporate news, Microsoft earnings were lifting up the rest of the market on Wednesday — even as its own stock was falling. Microsoft's capital expenditures were $19 billion in its latest quarter, and nearly all of that was cloud and AI-related spending, the company said.

The market views the continued heavy spending on AI as a boon to chip makers, Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote in a note Wednesday titled "The Capex that Saved the World." Nvidia stock jumped 9.6% while Broadcom gained 7.3%, Advanced Micro Devices stock jumped 10% and Intel was up 1.7%.

Markets

market close

FTSE 100 8,352 (+0.95%)

FTSE 250 21,551 (+0.56%)

DAX 18,492 (+0.44%)

16:32

Dow Jones 40,938 (+0.48%)

S&P 500 5,526 (+1.68%)

NASDAQ 17,584 (+2.53%)

Fixed Income

UK 10-YR YIELD 3.975

Exchange Rates

GBP/USD 1.2842

GBP/EUR 1.1864

Commodities

Gold $2,422 (+0.59%)

Brent $80.28 (+2.25%)

Important - No news or research item should be construed as a recommendation to trade. The inclusion of securities within this report does not necessarily imply their suitability for individual portfolios or situations in respect of which further advice should be sought. Information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable but is not warranted to be accurate or complete.