Most Gulf stock markets rebounded on Tuesday after comments from Federal Reserve officials helped calm markets after losses in the previous session on fears of a possible recession in the United States.
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said Monday it was too early to tell whether the July jobs report indicated a slowdown or real weakness, but it was “very important” for the U.S. central bank to prevent the labor market from sliding into recession.
Expectations
Traders’ expectations for the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 50 basis points at its September meeting remained at 71%.
GCC countries usually follow the Federal Reserve in their monetary policy, as most of their currencies are pegged to the dollar.
- The Saudi index advanced 1.5%, with shares of Al-Taiseer Aluminum Products Group rising 9.9%.
Shares of oil giant Saudi Aramco rose 1.5% after it reported net income of 109.01 billion riyals ($29.03 billion) in the second quarter, beating the average estimate of 15 analysts at $27.7 billion.
- Dubai’s index jumped 2.3% a day after falling more than 4%, with Emirates NBD, the emirate’s largest bank, rising 3.3%.
- Abu Dhabi index rose 1.2% as shares of First Abu Dhabi Bank, the country’s largest lender, rose 2.1%.
- The Qatari index fell 0.1%, affected by a 0.8% decline in the share of Qatar National Bank, the largest bank in the Gulf.
- Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index rose 1.3%.
Egypt’s fuel subsidies rose 31% year-on-year in fiscal year 2023-24 to EGP 165 billion ($3.35 billion), Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said today, while food subsidies reached EGP 133 billion ($2.7 billion), up 10% year-on-year.
US indicators
On Wall Street, major US stock indexes opened higher today as traders sought to recoup losses from the previous session, while cautious comments from Federal Reserve officials on interest rate cuts lifted market sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.16 points at the open to 38,704.43 points.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 17.73 points, or 0.34%, to 5,204.06, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 63.7 points, or 0.39%, to 16,263.7 at the open.
