Trading results for 2 June 2025
No one truly knows where the market is headed. Each day presents new riddles and challenges that investors must solve in real time. On Monday morning, the outlook appeared gloomy. Investor sentiment was subdued, even though, strictly speaking, nothing particularly negative had occurred over the weekend.
The overall atmosphere lacked optimism, which likely explains why the main trading session opened slightly in the red. Additional pressure came half an hour into trading with the release of U.S. ISM Manufacturing Index data, which fell to 48.5 points against expectations of 49.
In response, the market dropped further, and at one point, the indexes were down nearly 1% from Friday’s close. It seemed the “weather” had turned for the worse. But that impression proved misleading. In the second half of the day, news broke that President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping could hold talks as soon as this week. This development acted as a stimulant: the market revived, and participants slowly but surely began buying the dip.
By the end of the day, all major U.S. indexes had closed modestly higher: the blue-chip Dow Jones (DJIA-30) rose by 0.08%, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite added 0.67%, and the S&P 500 – the benchmark of the U.S. market – landed in the middle, gaining 0.41%. A relief, indeed: all’s well that ends well.
The ITS index family kept pace with their American counterparts, posting a uniform gain of 0.6%. The ITS World Index (ITSW), which tracks global companies, crept closer to its all-time high – now just a little over 1% away. If conditions remain favourable, we may see it reach a new record (ATH) later this week.
The main driver of Monday’s growth in the ITSW index was Kazakhstan’s own Kaspi.kz (KSPI, +3.80%), outpacing Meta Platforms (META, +3.62%), Israeli software firm CyberArk Software Ltd (CYBR, +2.89%), and pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA, +2.86%). Keep it up, Kazakhstan!
The main drag on the market – both on the ITSW index and other benchmarks – was Alphabet (GOOGL, -1.58%). The stock came under pressure from sellers due to investor concerns over a potential forced sale of its most profitable asset – the Google Chrome browser. Chrome has around 4 billion users and is responsible for up to 35% of Alphabet’s total profit.
As a reminder, in August 2024, Google lost a landmark antitrust case against the U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Amit Mehta found the tech giant guilty of monopolising the search engine market – in particular, segments for “general search” and “general search text” ads placed at the top of results pages.
Last Friday, Google and the Department of Justice concluded their closing arguments in the remedies phase. The DOJ is pressing Judge Mehta to require Google to divest Chrome, provide competitors access to search data, and prohibit exclusive agreements that make Google the default search engine on mobile devices and browsers.
According to analysts, if this happens, Alphabet’s stock could drop 15-25% in a single session – a potential “black swan” for the company. While this outcome still appears unlikely, investors are clearly beginning to fear it.
All in all, Monday’s trading session reflected the current state of the market and added no major new developments. Uncertainty remains high, feeding nervousness and indecision among investors. Still, one thing is reassuring: despite everything, the market continues its slow, step-by-step climb. And that, in turn, speaks to the market participants’ enduring – almost indestructible – optimism.