With the decline of the US dollar once morest other currencies, it returned gold its rise, near its highest level in nine months, which it recorded on Tuesday, while the movements were weak in the European and American stock markets And oil, awaiting a group of US companies’ business results, which may affect the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting next week.
After a decline of 0.6% during the first hours of trading on Wednesday, gold changed its direction and rose in spot transactions by 0.2%, to $ 1940.49 an ounce, while its futures contracts were settled in the United States, up 0.4%, at $ 1942.6.
shrink Nasdaq index Its big loss in the first minutes of trading, which exceeded 2.3% in its darkest moment in the Wednesday session, however, it ended the day in the red zone, for the second day in a row, but with a decline that did not exceed 0.2%.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial indices ended near the point at which they started the day, awaiting more corporate results, led by IBM and Tesla, which announced their business results following the end of today’s trading.
In a related way, European stocks fell slightly today, Wednesday, following weak future expectations from the American software company Microsoft, which fueled concerns regarding the future of the technology sector, despite achieving sales that exceeded expectations during the last quarter, while investors continued to fear regarding the possibility that central banks are not close to stopping the cycle. Increase interest rates.
The Stoxx 600 index of European stocks fell for a second day, to end the day’s trading, down 0.3%, but it rose from its lowest level in regarding two weeks, which it recorded earlier in the session.
The technology sector index, which has rebounded this year following significant difficulties over the past year, fell 0.4% following Microsoft expected revenue from cloud computing activities in the current quarter to come in below expectations.
“The weak outlook that Microsoft has drawn affects the technology sector in general,” Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets in London, told Archyde.com.
The STOXX 600 was also affected by the performance of the two sub-indices for the energy and industrial companies sectors, as they fell by 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively.
Oil prices settled unchanged on Wednesday, following government data showed a smaller-than-expected increase in US crude inventories, offsetting the impact of weak government data released on Tuesday.
Brent crude futures settled at $86.12 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate settled at $80.15 a barrel.
And Brent crude fell 2.3%, and US crude lost 1.8%, yesterday, Tuesday, following data showed that the activity of US companies contracted in January, for the seventh month in a row, which raised concerns regarding the recession of the US and global economy, and the demand for black gold was affected. .