Facebook triggers biggest singleday loss on US Nasdaq

Fundamental outlook US Nasdaq declined, affected by tech giant Facebook’s record decline. The US GDP grew at its best in four years. Other data on housing growth and durable orders remained flat. German maintained steady growth in its manufacturing sector.

US existing home sale grew 5.38 million in June, below forecast, after charting 5.41 million last month. New home sales grew 631,000 in June, lower than forecast and the previous month.

American orders for durable goods rose one per cent in June, missing forecast. Core orders, excluding transportation, grew 0.4 per cent, matching expectations. Unemployment claims for the week ended July 21 rose 217,000, in-line with consensus’ expectations.

US GDP for the second quarter (2Q) grew 4.1 per cent, the best recorded since 3Q14. President Donald Trump says the numbers will go higher if it sustains the GOP tax plan.

Facebook set a record plunge on Thursday by declining 19 per cent or US$120 billion in a single-day loss. Twitter also tumbled more than 20 per cent on Friday after governing the platform health check. Nasdaq made its recent record high at 7,933 before fizzling out.

The eurozone flash manufacturing index rose 55.1 in July, higher than forecast. Flash services climbed 54.4, missing expectations.

German Ifo business climate on manufacturers and wholesalers’ confidence rose to 101.7 in July, matching forecast. Manufacturing index grew at 57.3 in July, the highest in three months. Technical forecast US dollar/Japanese yen traded in a mild bearish trend last week. The market is weak after its recent high at 113.17. This week, we forecast the trend will remain sideways, with the potential to make a pull-up retracement. The range is expected to be contained from 110.50 to 113.50 region amid mixed sentiment.

Euro/US dollar is still within its expected range. This week, we reckon the range will stay in same region from 1.16 to 1.18 until we see a break. In our opinion, the market is waiting to be led by The dollar’s trend as a lead factor to move the euro.

British pound/US dollar has been trading in weak sentiments. The market is still waiting to break beyond 1.3 and 1.32 extremes before we could forecast a new directional headway. This week, we predict the sentiment will stay unchanged in the aforementioned range as traders ebb sideways.

Disclaimer: This article is written for general information only. No liability by the writer, publisher or any third party involved in the distribution of this work. Dar Wong is a registered fund manager in Singapore with 29 years of global trading experiences. You may reach him at dar@pwforex.com