US stocks recovered some of their losses on Thursday from the prior session’s rout, but European and Asian markets retreated on worries about the prospects for implementation of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Wall Street investors took advantage of lower prices for Apple, Amazon, Facebook and other sought-after equities that were depressed after Wednesday’s rout, lifting the tech-rich index 0.7 percent, a bit more than the gain in the Dow and S&P 500.
But European and Asian bourses fell, with analysts pointing to unease over a string of Trump scandals and stumbles that have thrown his plan for tax cuts and other growth initiatives into doubt.
“European equities are now fully entangled in the Trump-related sell-off. Yesterday the US market bore the brunt of the move but now it has gone global,” said David Madden, analyst at traders CMC Markets UK.
“Trump Dump!!” tweeted Mati Greenspan, senior markets analyst at eToro in Tel Aviv.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, said Thursday’s gains in the US were a “dead cat bounce” after Wednesday’s losses, and he predicted more volatility ahead.
“The reassessment of the agenda being pushed out will continue to put a lid on stocks,” Hogan said, although while Trump’s plans certainly will be delayed by his problems, they may not be dead.
The dollar also recovered a bit from multi-month lows against the euro.
Among individual US stocks, Wal-Mart Stores jumped 3.2 percent after reporting a rise in sales at US stores and sharp increases in e-commerce growth.
Cisco Systems slumped 7.2 percent after announcing it was cutting 1,100 jobs as it reported weaker-than-expected financial results in the past quarter.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, the Bovespa index plunged 8.8 percent after President Michel Temer was placed under investigation for allegedly agreeing to paying hush money to a jailed politician.
Temer, who came to power following the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff, vowed not to resign in a brief televised statement to the nation.
US-traded shares of Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras plunged 16.9 percent in the wake of the scandal.
–AFP