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Stocks Roar Back, Led by Rebound in Tech Shares: Markets Wrap

All you need to know about what’s moving markets.

Stocks Roar Back, Led by Rebound in Tech Shares: Markets Wrap
A trader signals a contract price during trading in Taiwanese stock index futures. (Photographer: Jonathan Drake/Bloomberg News)

(Bloomberg) -- Gut-wrenching volatility extended into a 12th week Monday as U.S. equities plunged and recovered, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversing a 508-point decline as tech shares bounced.

Major U.S. indexes finished in the green, buoyed by rallies in Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The pound tumbled as traders took a grim view of the outlook for the U.K. after Theresa May delayed a crucial Brexit vote. The dollar jumped and oil dropped.

Stocks Roar Back, Led by Rebound in Tech Shares: Markets Wrap

Investors found an excuse to buy the dip Monday after the S&P 500 fell to the lowest intraday level since April, continuing a volatile period for U.S. equities. Traders may need to steel themselves for the possibility of the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal, another worry amid already fragile sentiment in financial markets and lingering trade-war fears. But for now, traders were happy to buy shares of the biggest tech companies.

“Tech is running this market; it’s unbelievable,” Tom Essaye, a former Merrill Lynch trader who founded “The Sevens Report” market newsletter, said in an interview.

U.K. Prime Minister May postponed a key parliamentary Brexit vote rather than risk a bruising defeat, and wouldn’t commit to a new date for a vote. The EU Court of Justice said that Britain could unilaterally choose to change tack and stay in the union, while European Council President Donald Tusk made clear the deal would not be renegotiated.

Auto companies led the retreat in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index as concern about the strength of China’s economy lingered.

Elsewhere, Asian stocks fell. India’s rupee weakened as exit polls showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party was set for tight electoral contests in key states and as the central bank governor, Urjit Patel, resigned. Oil erased some of Friday’s rally triggered by OPEC and its allies agreeing on production cuts. Emerging-market shares and currencies fell.

Here are some key events on the calendar this week:

  • The European Central Bank is set to cap asset purchases at its final policy meeting of 2018 on Thursday.
  • China industrial production, retail sales data for November is due Friday.

And these are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

  • The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent at the close of trading in New York.
  • The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.9 percent.
  • The MSCI All-Country World Index dipped 0.8 percent with its fifth consecutive decline.
  • The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 2 percent.

Currencies

  • The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.5 percent.
  • The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.1354.
  • The Japanese yen decreased 0.5 percent to 113.26 per dollar.
  • The British pound sank 1.3 percent to $1.2562, the weakest in almost 20 months.
  • The MSCI Emerging Markets Currency Index sank 0.8 percent, the most in two months.

Bonds

  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 2.85 percent.
  • Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 0.24 percent.
  • Britain’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 1.19 percent, the lowest in 16 weeks.

Commodities

  • West Texas Intermediate tumbled fell 3.3 percent to $50.89 a barrel.
  • Copper slipped 1.3 percent to $2.725 a pound.
  • Gold dipped 0.4 percent to $1,244.05 an ounce.

--With assistance from Haidi Lun, Shery Ahn, Cormac Mullen, Adam Haigh, Eddie van der Walt and Christopher Anstey.

To contact the reporters on this story: Brendan Walsh in Austin at bwalsh8@bloomberg.net;Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, Brendan Walsh

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.