Trading results for 7 April 2025
On Monday, the markets went wild and seemed to drive every rational investor mad. The post-weekend trading opened in deep red across all global platforms. A 3% drop on the Indian market was considered minor, with analysts claiming India was successfully resisting the widespread negativity. Everything is, of course, relative: a 3% fall is nothing compared to the 8% plunge in Japan or the nearly 13% collapse of the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong.
It was no surprise then that, at the start of the main U.S. trading session, all major American indexes fell by 3%, seemingly determined to push even lower. But about an hour after the opening, a real miracle happened: stock prices – and with them, the indexes – suddenly shot up, gaining an impressive 8% in just 10-15 minutes.
The main benchmark of the American market, the S&P 500 index, jumped from 4,850 points to 5,250 – that very 8% rise. This came after reports that the White House was allegedly ready to postpone the introduction of tariffs by 90 days. However, the story didn’t end there. The rally was short-lived. As soon as White House representatives said the "90 days" story was fake (ha-ha, just a joke, dear investors!), the indexes crashed again – this time not 3% below Friday's close, but back to flat.
What followed was a rather sluggish, even tedious, tug-of-war between bulls and bears over whether prices should be above or below zero. In the end, two out of three indexes – the Dow Jones (DJIA-30) and the S&P 500 – finished in the red, down 0.91% and 0.23% respectively. However, their younger sibling – the NASDAQ Composite index of tech companies – managed a symbolic gain of 0.1%.
This split clearly shows where the front line was yesterday – right along the tech sector. Old man Dow was hit hardest mainly due to Apple (AAPL, -3.67%), which lost nearly 4% of its already diminished market cap. Meanwhile, the rest of the Magnificent Seven (MAG7) stocks fared much better and closed the day in the green, which helped lift the NASDAQ Composite.
As for the ITS family of indexes, a similar picture emerged. The ITS Shariah index of Islamic-compliant securities ended the day with a solid gain of 0.86%. Meanwhile, the ITS World index of global companies (ITSW) lost another 1% (-0.99%) of its value. This was mainly because the evening rebound in the U.S. market did not benefit the morning session for Chinese stocks, which suffered heavy losses.
The biggest losers in the ITSW stock portfolio were all Chinese: Alibaba (BABA, -9.06%), Li Auto (LI, -6.76%), NetEase (NTES, -6.54%) and JD.com (JD, -5.13%). This is why the rise in major U.S. tech names like Broadcom (AVGO, +5.37%), NVIDIA (NVDA, +3.53%), Amazon (AMZN, +2.49%) and Meta Platforms (META, +2.28%) couldn’t offset the negative drag from Chinese equities in the evening session.
In contrast, the big tech stocks were the heroes in the ITSS Islamic index, pulling it into positive territory. That is not an exaggeration – of the 30 stocks in the index, only 8 finished the day higher. In other words, around 75% of the portfolio was in the red. But thanks to the strong performance of leading U.S. tech firms, the index still gained nearly 1% compared to Friday’s close.
Monday’s results made one thing clear: the market is gripped by complete uncertainty and nervousness – if not outright hysteria. Stocks are swinging wildly, as investors worry about the potential consequences of the worsening global trade war. Yet at the same time, there’s still hope that the situation might somehow just resolve itself. If that’s the case, current price levels for many stocks look very attractive for buying. Plus, there’s the fear of missing a potential market reversal. Many are ready to take the leap and board the rocket heading up. But whether it will actually launch anytime soon – that’s still anyone’s guess.