US Equity Market Falls as Tech Stocks Decline and Investors Anticipate Inflation Data

　　

On Tuesday, the US equity market took a slight hit as investors reassessed their bets on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies. The three-day advance of US stocks came to a halt as technology shares declined, while Treasuries saw a slight dip.

Investors have been favoring tech stocks in recent weeks, moving away from financials following the collapse of three US banks. However, this trend has begun to reverse as there is increasing speculation that turbulence in the banking sector will be contained.

As investors gear up for a slew of data on the American economy this week, including the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation, the data is expected to play a role in the Fed’s upcoming rate decision.

In the benchmark, the Nasdaq 100 slumped 0.5%, paring a March advance to 4.7%. Tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. were among the biggest drags. The S&P500 fell 0.2%, with six out of eleven sectors staying in negative territory. The communication service dropped 1.02%, performing the worst among all groups. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, and the MSCI world index fell 0.1% on Tuesday.

Main Pairs Movement

The US Dollar saw daily losses of 0.42% on Tuesday as easing worries about a banking crisis led investors to favor riskier currencies. The DXY index was heavily sold throughout the day, closing at the 102.43 level by the end of the day.

Daily, the EURUSD saw a 0.44% gain, reaching a four-day high near 1.0850. The positive traction was triggered by the broadly weak greenback, and the pair closed at the 1.084 level. Investors have rising expectations for an unchanged Fed policy, which has helped to support the EURUSD.

The weakness of the US Dollar acted as a tailwind for the GBPUSD on Tuesday. The pair rose 0.45% daily for the day, benefiting from the broader weakness of the greenback.

Gold prices surged with a 0.86% daily gain on Tuesday, trading near a daily high of $1,970.03 per troy ounce. The weakness of the US Dollar supported the XAU/USD pair, which trimmed half of its losses from Monday. However, a better market mood subdued demand for the bright metal. The pair managed to rebound from a daily low of $1950 mark to the $1970 mark in the second half of Tuesday.

Economic Data

Currency	Data	Time (GMT + 8)	Forecast
USD	Pending Home Sales (MoM) (Feb)	22:00	-2.3%
USD	Crude Oil Inventories	22:30	0.187M