Trading results for 14 May 2025
Wednesday turned out to be a calm and virtually trouble-free day, just as many analysts had expected. After two days of decent growth, the market needed a pause – and that is what we got. Yes, there was still a certain degree of optimism, and some speculators tried to take advantage of it by pushing the indexes higher. However, their efforts were not very successful, and in the end the indexes failed to move far from the zero mark. There were also a few negative developments on Wednesday that held back the advance of the market bulls.
Firstly, a steady stream of negative sentiment continued to weigh on pharmaceutical companies. This sector has been experiencing a serious sell-off for nearly a week, which has mostly affected the old Dow. While the main benchmark of the U.S. market – the S&P 500 – has been able to counterbalance this negativity with solid demand for technology stocks, the Dow Jones index (DJIA-30) has not. As a result, it ended in the red for the second day in a row and, unfortunately, slipped below its 200-day moving average again.
The second negative factor came from a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson, who said that monetary policymakers are facing a “challenge” due to uncertain economic prospects. According to Jefferson, there is “significant uncertainty” about the future path of inflation. “If the announced tariff increases prove to be persistent, they are likely to interrupt the disinflation process and cause at least a temporary increase in inflation.” Naturally, these remarks upset market participants, and whatever small desire to buy that existed vanished altogether. As a result, demand was limited to shares of companies that are consistently in demand – namely, IT-related stocks. Unsurprisingly, only three of the eleven economic sectors ended the trading day in the green (Technology, Communication Services and Consumer Cyclical). All other sectors moved into negative territory, although their losses were not substantial.
By the end of the day, the Dow Jones index had lost 0.21%. The NASDAQ Composite, dominated by high-tech firms, once again posted a solid gain of 0.72%, breaking through the 19,000-point level. The broader S&P 500 index managed to stay above the zero line and closed with a modest gain of 0.1%.
The situation with the ITS family of indexes mirrored the U.S. market. Both the ITS World Index (ITSW) and the ITS Shariah Index (ITSS) hovered around the zero mark for most of the day and finished with moderate gains: +0.24% for ITSW and +0.14% for ITSS.
As was the case the day before, the leaders in both indexes were again shares of leading technology firms such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and others. That the tech sector is currently driving the market is further confirmed by the fact that eight out of the top ten best-performing companies on Wednesday in the ITSS index were technology companies. The remaining two – Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) and TJX Companies (TJX) – are involved in medical equipment and retail, respectively. Though it should be noted that the development of medical equipment should nowadays also be considered a high-tech activity.
In conclusion, it is somewhat reassuring to see that everything is going according to plan. The market has taken a pause but has not declined, suggesting that investors are in no rush to lock in profits and likely remain hopeful for further growth in the days ahead.