Now, investors are looking ahead to U.S. jobs data due on Friday
Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmarks were mostly lower, with the selling pressure intensifying after U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen said interest rates may have to rise to keep the economy from overheating. The message sent stocks lower, with tech shares leading the losses. Apple fell 3.5%, Facebook shed 1.3%, while Google’s parent company lost over 1.5%. The S&P 500 declined 0.7%, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.88%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to add 0.06%.
Despite hawkish remarks by Yellen, Asian stocks were little changed in still thin trading, with Chinese and Japanese markets being closed for holidays. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost nearly 0.5% while the S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney gained 0.39%. Now, investors are watching corporate earnings and looking ahead to U.S. jobs data due on Friday.
In Europe, equities opened higher on Wednesday while US stock index futures rebounded following the sell-off, suggesting investors mostly shrugged off Yellen’s comments. The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 1.35%. As a reminder, the index shed 1.4% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day decline since April 20. On the data front, the final services PMI in Germany slipped back below the key 50.0 threshold in April, to 49.9, while the same index in the Eurozone bettered the preliminary print at 50.5 from 49.6.
Meanwhile, the USD index extended the recovery to the 91.40 region on Wednesday, as US 10-year yields reclaimed the 1.60% figure following recent lows. Later in the day, market focus will shift towards the ADP report for the month of April seconded by the ISM non-manufacturing. Also, Fed officials Evans, Rosengren, and Mester are all due to speak.
