On Tuesday, investors worldwide remained careful, keeping a close eye on forthcoming economic statistics and central bank manoeuvres.
In the Irish capital, Euronext Dublin ended the day with a slight 0.3 per cent decline, a performance quite comparable to its global counterparts. Food powerhouse Kerry Group emerged as one of the most significant movers of the day, recording a 1.6 per cent rise. In contrast, the banking sector showed varied outcomes with AIB witnessing a 1.2 per cent drop in anticipation of the full year results due next day, whereas Bank of Ireland registered a slight increase of 0.6 per cent. Budget carrier Ryanair, despite a hectic day, saw its shares drop by 1 per cent.
A 5 per cent fall in shares was the fate of Origin Enterprises from the agriservices group after a nearly 28 per cent plunge in their revenue in the first half of their 2024 fiscal year due to an expected adjustment in global feed and fertiliser raw materials costing.
The FTSE 100 in London remained relatively unchanged due to a period of caution amid the chancellor’s vital budget announcement due the following day. Greggs’ shares spiked by 58p to 2,774p following an impressive pretax profit of £188.3 million for 2023, up from £148.3 million the previous year. In addition, it announced that nearly 25,000 employees would receive a share of a £17.6 million bonus pool this month. Meanwhile, shares of the Daily Mirror’s publisher, Reach, rose by 7.8p to 67.25p after it forecasted a reduced payout of £20.2 million to phone hacking victims due to a High Court ruling in December.
Builder’s merchant firm, Travis Perkins shares slipped by 20.2p to 725.2p due to a warning issued about the UK construction industry’s sluggish recovery until a government is elected later this year. A sharp rise in Spirent Communications shares by 68.6p to 177p was observed after agreeing to a £1 billion takeover by American competitor Viavi Solutions.
In Europe, shares experienced a slight drop when China’s attempts to revive its economy failed to win investor confidence, leading to caution ahead of economic data from the euro zone and the US. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index and MSCI’s gauge of global stocks dropped 0.3 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.
The German Dax Index and Cac 40 saw slight decreases at the close of trade with a drop of 0.1% and 0.3% respectively. Over in the United States, mega tech companies like Apple and Tesla witnessed a dip on Wall Street impacting the Nasdaq, while investors paid close attention to economic stats and expected comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
An artificial intelligence triggered surge on Wall Street ran out of momentum at the beginning of the week due to shifting attentions towards the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy direction, following persistent inflation indicators in February that minimised expectations of an early interest rate reduction.
The prominent S&P 500 landed a new intraday record high on Monday, only to close a little lower ahead of Powell’s official statements to lawmakers in the middle of the week.
At 11:32 in the morning Eastern Time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had seen a decrease of 0.59%, the S&P 500 had decreased by 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite had dropped by 1.64%.
Notable fluctuations included Apple which slipped 2.7% after reports revealed a 24% decrease in iPhone sales in China in the first six weeks of 2024 resulting from heightened competition from Chinese manufacturers including Huawei.
Other significant growth and tech stocks also fell. Tesla was down by 4.9% following a pause in production at its European Gigafactory near Berlin due to a suspected case of arson. Most of the primary S&P 500 sub-indexes tracked downwards, particularly those sensitive to interest rate fluctuations like technology.
On the other hand, Target experienced a boost of 11.3% following a forecast of annual sales largely predicted to top estimates. The American retailer attributes this confidence to same-day services, product rollouts, and a new membership initiative designed to encourage spending.