Trading results for 29 May 2025

Thursday brought high expectations – and it started on a powerful wave of optimism. Strong earnings from tech superstar Nvidia (NVDA), a ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade declaring that President Trump had overstepped his authority by imposing new tariffs without Congressional approval, and a stronger-than-expected GDP estimate – all of this emerged before the main trading session even began. It seemed the market had no choice but to rally. But the reality proved otherwise. Ultimately, the expectations were not met.

At the opening bell, all major U.S. indexes surged with a small gap up, with the NASDAQ Composite gaining as much as 1.5% at one point. But then something went wrong: the upward momentum began to deflate slowly but surely. Even Nvidia, the locomotive of the morning rally, started losing one percentage point after another. At its peak, the stock was up nearly 7%, yet by the close it had lost more than half of the day’s gains, ending with a more modest +3.25% compared to Wednesday.

Even more frustrating was Salesforce (CRM). The company had also reported earnings the evening before, which were initially met with enthusiasm. In the first half of the day, shares confidently added around 2%, but by the closing bell all of that growth had evaporated. The stock ended the session down 3.3%.

So it was something to be thankful for that all major U.S. indexes still managed to close in the green, despite the evident deterioration in sentiment. Gains ranged from 0.28% for the Dow Jones (DJIA-30) to 0.4% for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite.

The ITS indexes, however, were less fortunate. This was partly due to the fact that trading on the ITS platform does not end with the close of the main U.S. session (01:00 Astana time), but continues throughout the entire U.S. post-market – until 03:45 Astana time. On Thursday, sentiment in the U.S. continued to worsen after the closing bell: Nvidia’s shares lost more than 1% in post-market trading. As a result, both the ITS World Index (ITSW) and the ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) ended Thursday with slight losses: -0.08% (ITSW) and -0.68% (ITSS).

Thursday's results are also notable from a sectoral perspective – particularly evident in the ITSS index. As expected, Nvidia topped the performance rankings, although in the ITSW index it was outpaced by China’s JD.com (JD), which gained over 4% (+4.31%). Still, in terms of sector analysis, the day’s leader was the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector, where stocks gained an average of nearly 1% (+0.98%).

Among the top ten performers in the ITSS index were several giants of the tech sector such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO), but also five healthcare names – from AbbVie (ABBV) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Intuitive Surgical Inc (ISRG). In general, some healthcare stocks have shown steady and confident growth in recent weeks. However, this applies only to selected names, as the sector as a whole remains among the underperformers for the year.

In conclusion, market participants’ anxiety levels clearly rose on Thursday. Positives from external and corporate sources are being quickly absorbed and no longer fuel the market. It seems the rally that began in late April and continued through May is starting to sputter. Fortunately, there is still no sign of large-scale sell-offs. But the situation is clearly unstable and may at some point trigger more pronounced moves. The spring is compressing – and it is clear this cannot go on forever.