Trading results for 18 February 2025
After an extended three-day weekend in honour of U.S. Presidents' Day on Monday, market participants seemed eager to push stock prices to new heights. At least, that was the trend suggested by futures on major U.S. indexes in the first half of the day on Tuesday. However, by the start of the main trading session, this optimism had somehow faded, and the best the market could muster was a modest positive opening.
From there, indexes steadily declined, dipping below zero within the first half-hour of trading. This wasn’t a crash or a sell-off but rather a technical pullback – an entirely logical development given that the broad-market S&P 500 index had practically hit its resistance level on Friday. A brief pause and some consolidation at current levels were to be expected. That’s exactly what played out yesterday: minimal volatility and a slow dance around the break-even point.
It wasn’t until the final stretch of the session that the bulls gradually regained control, pulling indexes higher. The day ended with a last-minute rally that barely pushed them into positive territory. The S&P 500, to everyone’s delight, even managed to notch a fresh all-time high.
The ITS index family mirrored the movements of their U.S. counterparts. The standout performer was the global market index ITS World (ITSW), which continues to set record highs day after day. Yesterday marked its seventh consecutive session of hitting new all-time highs and closing at record levels. Admittedly, the gain was modest (+0.1%) – but maintaining such a streak is a rare achievement.
The ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) also posted gains, rising by 0.23% on the day, although it has yet to reach new highs.
The main intrigue of Tuesday’s session revolved around Intel (INTC, +16.06%). The company has long been struggling and is making renewed efforts to recover and boost shareholder value. However, these attempts have yet to yield the desired results. In fact, persistent rumours of a potential bankruptcy – its operating loss for 2024 stood at a staggering 76%! – or, at the very least, a split into two separate businesses (chip design and manufacturing) have been swirling.
Over the weekend, two of Intel’s competitors – Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) and Broadcom (AVGO) – appeared to be eyeing parts of the troubled company. Reports suggested that TSM was interested in acquiring Intel’s manufacturing plants, while Broadcom was keen on its chip design business. Although these rumours remain unconfirmed, Intel’s shares skyrocketed by over 16% on Tuesday, lifting the entire semiconductor sector along with them.
Another standout in the chip industry yesterday was Micron Technology (MU, +7.31%), which saw strong demand following news that it had secured a contract with Nvidia (NVDA, +0.40%) to develop, manufacture and supply high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for the System On Chip Advanced Memory Module (SOCAMM) project. Other participants in the initiative include SK hynix and Samsung.
As we can see, even during market lulls, investors find reasons for excitement – especially when it involves artificial intelligence and related sectors. Overall, Tuesday's session did not bring major changes. The market is now awaiting the key event of the week – the release of the minutes from the latest U.S. Federal Reserve FOMC meeting, scheduled for Wednesday evening.