The S&P 500 rallied from intra-day lows to close only marginally down. Technology stocks continued to be of focus with mixed share price response to results released last night – Amazon falling 3%, but Intel beating and rallying by the same amount.
The Energy sector benefited from returning strength in the oil price: now up almost 9% in a month to $51 a barrel.
US Healthcare reform stalled again with Senate Majority Leader, Mitch Mc Connell, withdrawing the Senate version of the Republican’s healthcare reform bill following its failure to pass in the Senate yesterday.
Separately, the Republican leadership announced that they were abandoning plans to introduce a Border Adjustment Tax as part of the overhaul of the US tax code. This proposal, when initially announced, had a material negative effect on the share prices of some importers and US retailers. The ending of the tax proposal should be taken positively by the stocks of these companies.
Market attention is on the release of Q2 US GDP today.
Europe
Mixed markets in Europe – Telecoms led the market (+1.3%) with Healthcare being the biggest laggard (-1.2%) driven down by the 15% fall in UK Healthcare company, AstraZeneca, following poor news on the development of one of its key drugs
The Euro and Sterling both fell (0.5% and 0.4% respectively) against the US dollar as yields on German Government bonds and UK Gilts slipped vs US Treasuries.
Asia
A weaker session across the board following the US lead.
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