The sour mood in equity markets has extended for another session, dominated by persistent risk-off sentiment over stretched Tech sector valuations. The entire day is squarely focused on $NVDA (+0.17%) 's Q3 earnings results after the close.
📉 Equities: Volatility & Global Declines
🇺🇸 US Indices: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed down for a fourth consecutive day (-0.7% each).
🇪🇺 Europe: Euro area equities led the losses, accumulating a decline of over 3% in a week.
😨 Volatility: The $VIX volatility index (the "fear gauge") is soaring, up 42% week-over-week and trading above 24 points, reflecting high pre-Nvidia uncertainty.
🇦🇺 Australia: The $XAO (-0%) index plunged by 2% (Tech sector down 6% in one day), while $CBA (Commonwealth Bank) hit a 6-month low.
💡 Labor Data & The Fed Narrative
Despite the equity panic, macro data supports bets on a Fed rate cut:
Unemployment: Early data revealed 232000 new unemployment claims (week ending Oct 18).
ADP (Jobs): Companies shed an average of 2500 jobs per week in the four weeks ending Nov 1, highlighting labor market weakness.
Fixed Income: US Treasury yields ended %lower% as investors sought safer assets, slightly increasing the market-implied probability that the Fed will lower rates in December%.
💻 Tech and Crypto on Edge
$NVDA (+0.17%) : Attention is at its peak. The stock fell over 1% ahead of Q3 results, which are seen as a critical test of the longevity of the AI boom.
$AAPL (+1.81%) : A rare US outperformer (+0.3%) due to a 37% sales increase in China.
$MSFT (+0.73%) / $NVDA (+0.17%) : The AI arms race continues with an agreement to invest another 15 Billion USD into OpenAI competitor Anthropic.
$$BRK.B (+0.39%) Bought 5 Billion USD of $GOOG (+2.98%) stock.
₿ Crypto: $BTC (+0.46%) is stabilizing near $91k after a sharp drop, with overall crypto markets holding steady ahead of macro data.
⛽ Commodities & Safe Havens
Oil ($1BRN ): Closed higher, near 65$/barrel, due to supply concerns related to Russian sanctions.
Gold 🥇: Sellers meet willing buyers; the precious metal shows resilience amid the risk-off environment.
Today's Focus: All eyes are on $NVDA (+0.17%) 's earnings after the close. The market's reaction will set the tone for the rest of the week!
