Originally published by Rivkin Securities
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen for the third day in a row, as has the S&P 500. A sell-off throughout the middle of the trading session brought the Dow down to close 1.7% lower for the day while the S&P 500 closed down 1.3%. The negative return for February marks the break of the longest monthly win streak on the Dow since 1959. Stock markets appear concerned about the prospect of a ramp-up in the pace of rate hikes with some possibility that four hikes is possible for 2018. President Trump’s rhetoric on imposing import tariffs has also been blamed as a reason for the sell-off. Trump announced he intends to put global tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. Interestingly, a similar policy was tried in 2002 by President Bush but this was undone the following year as America’s trading partners retaliated with tariffs of their own.
Gold was initially down but a late rally brought it back to slightly positive, holding just below $1,320 at $1,317 per ounce. Oil prices continue to slide into the low $60’s (for WTI as the Department of Energy data confirmed another build in inventories this week. Iron ore prices have been climbing throughout February and are now back near multi-year highs near US$80 per tonne. The recent strength has come from strong Chinese steel prices resulting from steel production curbs in the Chinese city of Tangshan as well as relatively low steel inventories in China.
S&P/ASX 200 futures are down 48 points this morning.
Data Releases:
- Canada GDP 12:30am AEDT