The US markets slipped on Wednesday for the first time in three days, the worst day of the year for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as anxiety about the fiscal cliff and Europe’s economic troubles hammered sentiment. Now with elections over, Obama faces negotiations with Congress to avoid the so- called fiscal cliff of more than $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts next year that threaten US growth. The Congressional Budget Office has stated that the US economy will contract by as much as 0.5 percent next year if Congress fails to keep the increases from taking effect. Besides, Fitch Rating stated that Obama needs to quickly secure agreement on avoiding the fiscal cliff and raising the debt ceiling, and cautioned that failure to do so would likely result in a rating downgrade in 2013. Fitch has so far maintained its ‘AAA’ rating for the United States.
In Europe, the Greek parliament passed a fresh round of austerity measures, with the governing coalition securing at least 151 votes. The country was required by its institutional lenders to pass 13.5 billion euros ($17.2 billion) of extra cuts before receiving 31 billion euros of additional financial aid. Also, the European Central Bank is likely to take a wait-and-see approach on monetary policy, even as Mario Draghi warns that the region’s debt crisis is starting to take a toll on Germany. Separately, the European Commission forecast a 0.3% decline in economic activity in the European Union this year, and subdued growth in 2013. The euro zone economy is expected to contract 0.4% this year, and will be stagnating in 2013.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 312.95 points, or 2.36 percent, to close at 12,932.70, the S&P 500 finished down by 33.86 points, or 2.37 percent at 1,394.53, while the Nasdaq ended lower by 74.64 points, or 2.48 percent to settle at 2,937.29.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Wednesday, Infosys was down 0.71%, ICICI Bank was down 0.64%, Tata Motors was down by 0.52% and HDFC Bank was down 0.45%. On the other hand, MTNL was up by 0.02%.
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: