The so-called reflation trade that has seen everything from cruise and airlines to commodities and oil companies rally strongly since November has slowed this week, culminating in another 0.6% fall in the Dow Jones overnight.
Despite news that the Federal Reserve may hike rates earlier than expected, big tech names including Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) have been resilient with investors clearly focused on their huge free cash flow and more reasonable valuations compared to late in 2020.
The Nasdaq jumped 0.9%, hitting another record with NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) a key contributor, up 4.7% and Amazon also up 2.2%.
A flow on from Wednesday’s Fed meeting was a strengthening in the US, unexpected to many, which has seen the AUD weaken in a boon for our global leaders and miners.
Copper has now fallen to a two month low, after consistently hitting records in 2021, this follows the Chinese government’s announcement to focus on reducing speculation in the price.
Adobe powers ahead
Software and design provider Adobe (NASDAQ: ABDE) finished 1.5% higher after another strong quarter of growth with revenue 23% higher.
Digital media grew 25%, creative 24% and most importantly Document Cloud was 30%, showing the sheer opportunity for these online businesses and why investors continue to flock to the sector.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks traded on Thursday.
- Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) up 11.3%
- Unity Software (NYSE: U) up 7.3%
- Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) up 6.3%
- Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) up 6.1%
- Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) up 5.7%
- Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) down 3.6%
- Newmont (NYSE: NEM) down 7.0%
- Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) down 7.6%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to open higher on Friday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.
