Trading results for 4 February 2025
Tuesday’s trading made it clear that the market is following an increasingly unstable trajectory. Many investors continue to hold a positive outlook, ignoring clear negative signals emerging in the market. This optimism is what allows us to witness rebounds like the one that occurred on Tuesday.
Despite a slight decline and turbulence from new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, Monday closed on a mildly positive note. The reason for this optimism was the delay in tariff implementation for Canada and Mexico, leading market participants to hope for a similar decision on Chinese tariffs. However, this time, the situation proved to be far more serious. In response, China introduced its own increased tariffs, and reports of potential negotiations between Trump and Xi Jinping have yet to be confirmed. As a result, there is little reason for enthusiasm.
Under these conditions, a market collapse and continued sell-off seemed inevitable. However, investors saw things differently. From the start of the day, buying activity picked up, pushing the market higher. Even disappointing JOLTS job openings data, which fell well short of expectations (7.6 million versus the forecasted 8.0 million), did not dampen the mood. Demand increased throughout the day, and by the close, trading ended near daily highs.
All indexes recorded solid gains, once again nearing historic highs. The NASDAQ Composite led the U.S. market, rising 1.35%, largely driven by big tech stocks, particularly companies from the "Magnificent Seven" group. The key catalyst for this rally was the quarterly report from Palantir Technologies (PLTR, +23.99%), a leader in AI-driven big data solutions. Palantir continues to impress investors with rapid growth and profitability, surpassing analyst expectations by 26%. Just three months ago, its stock was trading at $40, while by Tuesday’s close, it had surged to $103 – a staggering 150% gain in a single quarter.
While major U.S. indexes delivered strong performances, the ITS indexes showed only minimal gains. The ITS World (ITSW) global market index fully recovered Monday’s losses, rising 0.4%. Meanwhile, the ITS Shariah (ITSS) Islamic securities index remained almost flat, adding just 0.05%.
Tuesday was a rare instance where the key growth drivers in the ITS indexes came from entirely different sectors. In ITSW, the best-performing stock was Spotify Technology (SPOT, +13.24%), which saw strong investor demand after reporting a solid quarterly earnings report. It was supported by automakers recovering from Monday’s losses, including Ferrari (RACE, +7.08%), Li Auto (LI, +5.99%) and Stellantis (STLA, +4.12%).
Meanwhile, in ITSS, the leading stocks were Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, +4.58%), alongside oil giants ExxonMobil (XOM, +2.68%) and Chevron (CVX, +2.60%). The energy sector stood out as the best-performing industry of the day, even outpacing technology and communication services, posting an impressive 2.05% gain.
Despite the rebound and relative optimism, uncertainty lingers. Geopolitics has taken center stage, now dictating market movements. This inevitably brings a high degree of unpredictability and increased risk.