Stocks On Hold After China Lockdowns Spread

Barry Adams
25 Nov, 2022
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street lacked direction and closed mixed in shortened trading session. 

Benchmark indexes generally closed down in thin trading a day after Thanksgiving holiday and investors reacted to the latest news from China. 

The People's Bank of China lowered its bank reserve ratio by 25 basis points to a weighted average ratio of 7.8%, freeing as much as $70 billion in capital.

Investors grew worried after the resurgence of Covid19 virus forced more regions to lockdown conditions impacting about 20% economic activities, from 10% just a week ago. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 1.14 points to 4,026.12 and the Nasdaq Composite index eased 0.5% or 58.96 points to 11,226.36. 

For the week, the S&P 500 index gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.7%. 

Crude oil price declined $1.70 to $76.38 a barrel and natural gas prices eased 38 cents to $6.79 a thermal unit. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury noted closed at 4.47%, 10-year Treasury notes at 3.69% and 30-year Treasury bonds at 3.79%. 

Investors also reviewed the latest minutes from the European Central Bank' rate setting meeting held on October 27. 

The hawkish tone of the committee members suggested that interest rates are likely to go higher by at least 50 basis points at the next meeting scheduled November 30. 

The dollar edged lower after the release of minutes and extended decline against the British pound and the euro for the fourth day in a row.  

 

Stock Movers 

Apple Inc declined 2% to $48.11 after the protest broke out at Foxconn's factories in China after months of lockdowns,  a key contract-manufacturer of iPhone devices. 

Activision Blizzard declined 4.1% to $73.47 after Politico reported that the Federal Trade Commission is likely to sue Microsoft and block its $69 billion acquisition of the company. 

Coupa Software soared 6.4% to $62.69 following a 29% surge in the previous session on the Bloomberg News report that Vista Equity Partners is looking to acquire the company. 

Grindr Inc declined 4.5% to $9.55 and extended weeklong losses from the high of $63.71 on November 18. 

The, recently merged with a special purposed acquisition company Tiga Acquisition Corp., generated a profit of $5.1 million on $146 million in revenue, compared to a $13 million loss on $104 million in sales.  

Tesla declined 0.2% to $182.86 after the electric vehicle maker recalled 80,000 vehicles in China to fix seat-belt and software issues.