Trading results for 4 March 2025

The Trump-euphoria continues – or rather, Trump-madness. Stock prices are swinging wildly, while market participants are desperately seeking stability. However, for investors, peace of mind is nothing but a dream right now. No wonder Trump remarked before his evening address to Congress on Tuesday that “tomorrow night will be big.” For some traders, the session itself must have felt like an eternity.

Consider this: the main trading session opened in a confident decline, with indexes moving exclusively south – meaning downward. The key benchmark of recent weeks – Nvidia (NVDA, +1.92%) – plunged, at one point losing more than 3% from the previous day’s close. This was hardly surprising, as Trump’s new restrictive tariffs directly impact NVDA.

But then, for some inexplicable reason, the situation began to improve – perhaps investors started believing in “kind old grandpa Trump,” expecting him to bring gifts in his evening speech. As a result, Nvidia, along with Alphabet (GOOGL, +2.34%), Palantir Technologies (PLTR, +1.52%) and several of their tech peers, surged, ending the day firmly in the green, gaining up to 3% at their intraday peak compared to Monday’s close. However, just before the finish line, half of these gains evaporated – likely due to jitters ahead of Trump’s speech. After all, no one knows what he might say or where his thoughts may lead.

A glance at the top-performing stocks in the ITS Shariah Index (ITSS), which includes 30 of the largest U.S. companies, perfectly illustrates the market’s current mood: only seven of them finished the day in positive territory, six of which were big tech stocks. The sole exception was pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN, +1.51%), which managed to break into the ranks of leading American tech firms.

Despite the midday optimism, all major indexes closed the session in the red. Thanks to a late rally in big tech, the NASDAQ Composite fared best, losing only -0.35%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones (DJIA-30) and S&P 500 took heavier hits, dropping by -1.55% and -1.22%, respectively. Notably, the NASDAQ Composite broke below its 200-day moving average, while the S&P 500 briefly touched this key level before managing to close slightly above it. Support is cracking – but, for now, it remains intact.

As for the ITS indexes, they held up well in such a challenging environment, with only minor losses. In fact, the ITS World Index, benefiting from strong geographic diversification, managed to finish slightly in the green (+0.11%). Its main drivers were Chinese stocks, particularly tech giants NetEase (NTES, +4.11%) and Baidu (BIDU, +3.36%). The ITS Shariah Index (ITSS), however, ended with a symbolic loss of -0.3%, barely moving from zero.

So, another day of sell-offs has passed. While it wasn’t a complete disaster, it certainly didn’t inspire optimism. The technical outlook is becoming increasingly bleak. But perhaps President Trump will work some magic and finally say something reassuring – something that the markets will interpret as an economic positive. Judging by investor behaviour, many are still holding out hope.