Market Outlook

On Wednesday, the Fed said that it would keep the interest rates near zero until the end of 2022 after the FOMC meeting. Even the Fed actually met expectations, investors feel gloomy after digesting the Fed actions, which likely indicated a pessimistic outlook of the US economy. Fed members projected that the US economy would shrink 6.5% this year and the unemployment rate would be 9.3% at the end of the year.

Gold market was under pressure recently. Although the China-US tension is still a concern, investor sentiment has improved a lot due to the good figures in Non Farm Payrolls last Friday.

The Non-farm Payroll figures last Friday showed a surprising improvement in the labor market of the US. Risk appetite was further boosted by the hopes of global economy recovery, dragging down the safe-haven demand.

Market sentiment was very cautious on Friday before Trump’s press conference. Investors were worried that the US would take aggressive measures against China, including economic sanctions. However, President Trump did not mention much that the traders feared. With lack of details, the Wall Street bounced back in the US late session, which the Dow edged lower, S&P 500 rose 0.48%, and the Nasdaq performed the best closing 1.29% higher.  

It is reported that President Trump will hold a press conference regarding “China” on Friday. Investors are worried the escalation of tension between China and the US, causing a sharp retreat in Wall Street, giving up all the gain of the day after the news. The Wall Street three major indexes all edged lower finally.

The three major indexes rose again on Wednesday, as investors keep betting on the economy reopening. The rising tension between China and the US seemed to have no much impact on the stock markets.

The three major Wall Street indexes rose on Tuesday as investors are betting on the reopening of the global economy. The US economic figures were generally better than expected, boosting optimism in the market. And, the news from coronavirus vaccine development was also positive to the sentiment. However, the risk appetite faded out on Wednesday Asian session. Investors are now closely monitoring the growing tension between China and the US.

In the early session on Tuesday, the drop of the dollar and the rally of the stock market index futures of Europe and the US have implied the risk-on mode already. The vaccine news from Novavax, a vaccine development company of the US, was one of the factors. The company said  that it targets the first vaccine testing results in July.

The rising tension between China and the US would be the main theme in the financial market in the coming days. Investor sentiment is highly cautious. However, the stock markets were just mixed in Asian session on Monday. The move was not bad last Friday during US session, meaning that the sentiment was not that bearish due to the economies reopening worldwide.

The fears of the China-US relation deterioration turned on the “risk off” mode. Even though some of the economic figures were positive to the stock markets, the three major Wall Street indexes edged lower on Thursday. ZFX analyst Jacob Leung said that, market sentiment changed to bearish. Some of the investors believe that the worst has passed, while some of them are still doubtful.